Midtown East Rezoning Gains City Council Committee Approval

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — City Councilman Daniel Garodnick proclaimed "East Midtown is back" Thursday morning on the steps of City Hall after a proposal to rezone the neighborhood received unanimous support from the City Council's land use committee.

The committee approval is a good omen for politicians like Garodnick who have touted the plan as a solution to revitalize and modernize Midtown East's office building stock.

"This is a plan that will reestablish East Midtown as the crown jewel of our business districts, as an economic engine for out city and and will strengthen its future for many years to come," Garodnick said Thursday.

The plan also has the backing of officials such as Borough President Gale Brewer and Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen.

The rezoning plan aims to give developers several options to upgrade their buildings. These options include: undertaking pre-approved transit upgrades in exchange for more building space, buying the air rights of landmarked buildings in the district and allowing currently overbuilt buildings to re-use all of their existing floor area in an on-site redevelopment.

A few changes were made to the plan as it made its way through City Council deliberations, Crain's New York Business reported. The plan now includes a stipulation that developers must include some element of public space in sites larger than 30,000 square feet, according to the report. The council also lowered the price of air rights on landmarked buildings from $393 per square foot to $307.45, the Real Deal reported. The city will collect either $61.49 per square foot or 20 percent of the sales price, the Real Deal reported.

The area that falls within the rezoning proposal is a 78-block section of Midtown that spans the east side of Third Avenue and the west side of Madison Avenue from East 39th to 57th streets.

Check out a map of the rezoning area below:

Photo by Andrea Puggioni via Flickr/Creative Commons