New building filings decline in July to lowest level in 12 months

By Atticus O’Brien-Pappalardo

The combined square feet of all new building projects filed with the city’s Department of Buildings fell last month for the second month in a row, dropping to the lowest monthly total in the past year.

The total square feet dropped from 2.2 million in June to 1.6 million in July, a 24 percent decrease. Since the start of 2019, only July of 2019 had a lower total, when 1.3 million square feet of planned new construction was filed. PincusCo looked at all new building (NB) filings of 2,000-square-feet and above. For residential buildings, the analysis covered those with four or more units, and did not include residential units in hotel (R-1) buildings.

July also saw a large drop off in the total number of residential units filed for. The 1,069 units across all filings was the second lowest total since the start of 2019. Only November of 2019 had a lower monthly total, with 1,030. The 1,069 units were down from June’s total of 1,581 units, and significantly down from the 3,813 units in April and 3,705 units in May.

Even so, New York City developers still filed a significant number of new construction plans in July. In total, 90 new building projects were filed last month, only a slight decline from the 108 new building plans filed in June and the 107 new building plans filed in April. July’s total was substantially lower than May’s, when 151 new building plans were filed. That total was somewhat of an anomaly, however, as filings were likely driven up due to changes to the New York City Energy Conservation Code, as PincusCo reported at the time.

The projects filed last month, as they were in June, were smaller, and that is part of a larger trend.

Plans for new buildings of 100,000-square-feet or more have been decreasing monthly by 39 percent on average since April. In April, 14 plans were filed calling for buildings larger than 100,000-square-feet. Five of those called for buildings larger than 300,000-square-feet. In May, there were 10 plans filed for buildings larger than 100,000-square-feet. Four of those were larger than 200,000-square-feet and two were larger than 500,000-square-feet. In June, there were six plans filed for buildings larger than 100,000-square-feet and none for buildings 200,000-square-feet or larger. In July, there were only three plans filed for buildings larger than 100,000-square-feet and, just as with June, none for buildings 200,000-square-feet or larger.

Last month there were five plans filed for new buildings of 80,000-square feet or more.

DH Property Holdings was responsible for the largest plans of the month. On July 24 plans were filed calling for construction of a 175,308-square-foot storage building at 75 20th Street in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The property was acquired by the developer in January of 2019 for $214.2 million.

The second largest project came from Davis Companies when the firm filed plans for a new building on property it had purchased just four months prior. The plans, pre-filed on July 9, called for the construction of a 135,003-square-foot storage building at 155 West 29th Street in Chelsea. The Boston-based company paid the Garfinkel family $26 million for the development site, along with 165 West 29th Street, in March.

Solomon Feder filed the third largest plans on July 6, calling for construction of a 171-unit, 130,855-square-foot residential building at 1640 Flatbush Avenue in Midwood, Brooklyn. The property is also referred to as 1636 Flatbush Avenue. Moinian Group paid SL Green Realty $16.2 million for the property on December 30, 2019. The deal was recorded on January 8, 2020. Feder filed using Moinian’s LLC, however it was unclear exactly what his involvement was.

The fourth largest plans were filed by the Mega Contracting Group on July 14, calling for construction of a 35-unit, 93,193-square-foot mixed-use building at 22-61 45th Street in Astoria. It was the second, and larger, of two new building plans filed by the developer at the site last month. The first plans were filed on July 10, calling for construction of a 35-unit, 69,247-square-foot mixed-use building at 22-60 46th Street.

Lastly, St. James’ Episcopal Church and Parish House, on July 9, filed a permit application for construction of a 102-unit, 89,337-square-foot mixed-use building at 2520 Jerome Avenue in Fordham.