Council Member Stephen Levin and the rest of the City Council voted today to approve the two controversial high-rise towers at 77 Commercial Street near the Greenpoint waterfront, according to Levin’s office. The 30- and 40-story towers will bring 200 units of affordable housing as well as $9,500,000 in city funding to create Box Street Park. Affordable housing will make up 28 percent of the total apartments, with a range of 40 to 125 percent Area Median Income.
The city and the developer will provide $14,000,000 in funding to relocate all of the vehicles currently at the park site, including MTA Access-a-Ride vehicles and Emergency Response Units. And the developer promises 9,500 square feet of open space around the two towers, “as a second fully landscaped walkway to serve as community access from the east” and a path to where Commercial Street dead-ends at the industrial waterfront. There will also be a free shuttle to the 7 and G trains (paid for by the developer), and the MTA will work with the developer to run a bus line along Commercial Street.
The development will include at least 5,000 feet of community space, and retailers must occupy less than 5,000 square feet, with preference given to neighborhood businesses. The developer is not allowed to lease to “big box” retailers.
In December of last year, Greenpoint councilman Steve Levin gave 77 Commercial Street the all-important local thumbs-up, and the rest of City Council followed suit, voting to approve the project. Two towers are planned for the site – one 30 stories, the other 40 – on the condition that the developer set aside 200 of the 700 apartments to let at below-market rates, and include 5,000 square feet of community space.
The development was made possible by the purchase of air rights from the MTA, which, as Brownstoner explained last year, came with some conditions:
The city and the developer will provide $14,000,000 in funding to relocate all of the vehicles currently at the park site, including MTA Access-a-Ride vehicles and Emergency Response Units. And the developer promises 9,500 square feet of open space around the two towers, “as a second fully landscaped walkway to serve as community access from the east” and a path to where Commercial Street dead-ends at the industrial waterfront. There will also be a free shuttle to the 7 and G trains (paid for by the developer), and the MTA will work with the developer to run a bus line along Commercial Street.
Now, preparation of the site for development is underway, as permits were filed in June for the erection of a construction fence and sidewalk shed, and permits requested yesterday for the demolition of the site’s existing two-story structure.
77 Commercial Street, image via Google Maps
Joseph Chetrit and David Bistricer are the developers, and CetraRuddy – who spoke with YIMBY last month about 77 Commercial Street and other projects – is the architect.
BY: REID WILSON ON SEPTEMBER 17TH 2014 AT 11:30 AM
77 Commercial Street: Spanning 77-87 Commercial Street, in Greenpoint, “Waterview at Greenpoint LLC” has filed a slew of applications to construct a 40-story and 296-unit residential building of 247,504 square feet, a 30-story and 224-unit residential building of 170,156 square feet, and a six-story and 200-unit building of 230,149 square feet. CetraRuddy is the architect of record.
Resurrecting a very old thread. Latest news as of this week.
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Clipper Equities buys out Chetrit at 720-unit Greenpoint project
David Bistricer’s Clipper Equities has bought out the Chetrit Group at their massive Greenpoint project on Commercial Street, according to the developer.
Bistricer declined to discuss the financial terms of the buyout and described the move as “strategic planning stuff” between him and Chetrit. He said they still have other partners on the site, and Chetrit’s departure has not changed their plans for the project.
“We’re going full speed ahead on what we’re doing,” he said.
Chetrit declined to comment.
The project at 77 Commercial Street will include 720 units across three buildings, and the developers have pledged to make 200 of the units affordable. It was permitted in the spring of 2015—a time when developers were extremely worried about losing the 421a tax exemption, which allows them to pay lower taxes for 20 years if they invest in affordable housing—but has not seen much progress since then.
Over the last year, the Chetrit Group has sold its stakes in other developments across the city. The Real Deal reported last August that the firm was bought out by partner Michael Stern’s JDS Development Group at 9 Dekalb Avenue, for nearly $60 million. Up in the Bronx, Chetrit and Keith Rubenstein’s Somerset Partners sold their massive Mott Haven development sites to Brookfield Property Partners for $165 million.
