Bringing the development style of the West Side eastward, this project brings a significant commercial presence into the Kips Bay towers. New low-rise extensions, combined with massive commercial skyscrapers will bring needed amenities to the original towers and activate the mightiest potential of the site.
Most of the exposed rail infrastructure below 59th street is being covered up by new development, so no real master stroke is available in that regard anymore. The new strategy is finding those aging mid-century housing/urban renewal projects that need that little something extra, or in this case, that big bonus. This could work alongside the Consolidated Edison site as two complementary developments that bring needed substance to the East Side, which doesn’t really have that much to boast about when it comes to talking about new development. One is a blank slate, the other needs something to speak of.
I live pretty close to here and this is hands-down, my favorite theater in the city. Relatively clean, solid IMAX. It has a single lane street adjacent to 2nd Ave. which makes for safe car drop off and pick ups. There’s a big Citi Bike terminal there also.
I even like the Fairway supermarket…but at the same time it’s basically a strip mall and there’s been development in the area -even if mostly the hospitals and third Avenue- so it was almost inevitable that it would be torn down and replaced. I just thought it would be in 20-30 years when the Second Avenue subway finally gets down to us. Too bad, but it’s no landmark.
LOL at these people. They really have nothing better to protest? Fascist creep, genocide, war, soaring inflation, nope. Let’s protest a shuttered movie theater being replaced by a hospital building. I bet the new building has many multiples the jobs, tax base and public utility. Maybe they give the NIMBYs a basement space so they can watch Avengers 7 or whatever.
Using an AI poster to defend a theater closing is hilarious, also not everything needs a protest, most of them achieve nothing but making the people there look ungrateful and generate publicity for who they protest.
