It looks like Vornado’s nearby building at 650 Madison will be a very strong candidate for residential/hotel. I can’t imagine that the same is true for this property too.
This tower is 600k sf. I assume that a pretty tall tower with incredible park views could rise here.
„ SL Green has struck a deal to sell the Plaza District office building at 625 Madison Avenue for more than $600 million, the final move in a high-stakes set of maneuvers over the property.“
This would certainly be the place for it. But with the ultra-luxury market sagging, I’d be surprised if SL Green opted for a ground up supertall.
I wonder if they might consider recladding the current building and using it as the base for a large-ish addition above. If the structure supports it, it could be a relatively cost effective way to get some very pricey condos built. The existing building has the right proportions to be the base of an art deco/neoclassical tower, if you just swapped out the facade for masonry.
The current building already uses all of it’s zoned FAR, there are no additional unused air rights on the lot, and uses more than would be allotted for residential use. The only way they’d be able to build on top is to buy air rights.
Sure. That’s fairly normal operating procedure in Midtown, isn’t it? I know this isn’t within the rezoning which would make it easier, but I have little doubt SL Green could assemble plenty of air rights if that was their intention.
I wouldn’t say buying air rights is that normal even though news of buying air rights is now fairly common. Regardless, the site would have to go through the ULURP process to convert to residential usage from commercial. and per my previous post the site would have too much FAR than the current residential FAR would allow, about ~176K sqft over the limit.
As you mentioned SL Green is completely capable of purchasing air rights, but that’s pretty uncommon if a structure is being kept that is also already over the size limit. purchasing of air rights would be more typical in the condition that the site is emptied/empty and the developer wants the building to be larger.
What exactly is the ULURP process and what does the abbreviation mean?
Are there still many free air rights that can be acquired?
How expensive can air rights actually be in New York?
ULURP stands for Uniform Land Use Review Procedure
ULURP is a standardized procedure whereby applications affecting the land use of the city would be publicly reviewed."
This site doesn’t have any air rights left as mentioned previously. Air right purchasing price is at the discretion of the developer or owner of said air rights and whether they are selling them or willing to accept an amount/deal for them to be transferred.