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The Daily Dirt: All eyes on Midtown
Analysis of New York’s top real estate news
This 40-block area has a lot going on.
For one, it is home to Madison Square Garden, which was just granted a five-year permit to stay put.
A City Council committee on Monday approved the special permit, with few strings attached. One omitted condition had been sought by the City Planning Commission: It wanted the Council to require arena owners to come back once plans for redesigning Penn Station were 30 percent complete, to ensure the arena is compatible with the station’s overhaul.
That requirement was a nod to the MTA’s plan for Penn, but the Council did not do the transit agency’s or Adams administration’s bidding.
ASTM, which has put forward a competing vision for the station, views this as a positive. The company says it remains the only party to have a deal with MSG to buy its Hulu Theater and take control of its defunct taxiway, making its plan is “the only achievable” one to overhaul Penn Station, PAU’s Vishaan Chakrabarti said during a press conference Tuesday.
The Adams administration is also planning to rezone 42 blocks of Midtown South. The rezoning would border Penn Station and the Garden, but carve out the properties targeted by Gov. Kathy Hochul for 10 mostly commercial towers around the station. Hochul, of course, could shift gears, and even abandon her general project plan for the megadevelopment.
Hochul put that plan on ice this year, but made clear that she had not given up on it. Vornado Realty Trust controls five of the plan’s eight development sites. If rezoned by the city instead, development on those sites would likely be new housing or office-to-residential conversions.
A lot of unknowns remain, and the rezoning process is not expected to formally kick off until next year.
What we’re thinking about: Were you at the Hamptons fundraiser co-hosted by billionaire John Catsimatidis for Mayor Eric Adams? Tell me about it at kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: The water main that broke under Seventh Avenue in Midtown on Tuesday was installed in 1896, according to WABC.
Elsewhere in New York…
— Mayor Eric Adams criticized Gov. Kathy Hochul’s resistance to a proposed statewide ban on municipalities trying to block the arrival of migrants, Politico New York reports. She has encouraged New Yorkers to welcome migrants but argued that counties should not be forced to shelter them, as New York City is. “I think the governor’s wrong,” the mayor said. “She’s the governor of the state of New York. New York City is in that state. Every county in this state should be part of this.”
— Police are investigating a suspected murder-suicide at an Upper West Side apartment, Gothamist reports. On Monday, Edison Lopez, his wife Alexandra Witek and their two young children were found stabbed to death in their fourth-floor apartment.
— Patrick Murphy, 25, of Colorado, faces hate crime and criminal mischief charges for allegedly vandalizing multiple LGBTQ pride flags at the Stonewall National Monument, NBC News reports.
Closing Time
Residential: The priciest residential closing Tuesday was $8.25 million for a condo at 35 Hudson Yards.
Commercial: The most expensive commercial closing of the day was $19.25 million for a four-story, two-unit building at 162-21 Jamaica Avenue and a neighboring duplex at 89-66 in Jamaica.
New to the Market: The priciest residence to hit the market Tuesday was a Prospect Park West townhouse in Park Slope asking $14 million. Compass has the listing.Breaking Ground: The largest new building filing of the day was for a 2,208-square-foot building at 2058 Seagirt Boulevard in Far Rockaway. Gerald Caliendo Architects filed the permit application.