The shell of a building that was once Parkway Hospital in Forest Hills has been empty for nearly 20 years. At long last, it’s being redeveloped.
City agencies, elected officials, and developers broke ground Wednesday on the $150 million redevelopment of the long-vacant facility that closed in 2008. The former hospital will be converted into a 144-unit, intergenerational affordable housing complex.
The 156,000 square-foot development, located at 70-35 113th St., is expected to be completed by the end of 2027 and will include 144 affordable housing units for households earning up to 50% of Area Median Income (AMI), including 20 family units and 124 senior units, with 44 units earmarked for formerly homeless seniors.
Rudin is adding an additional office-to-residential conversion in Midtown to its development portfolio.
The family-led real estate firm intends to convert its office tower at 355 Lexington Ave. into a 297-unit residential building, according to plans it recently filed with the Department of Buildings. The height of the tower, located between East 40th and East 41st streets and also addressed as 133 E. 40th St., would increase slightly, rising from 22 stories and 241 feet to 26 stories and 278 feet, and it would span about 280,000 square feet overall with retail space on the ground floor, the filing says.
Vanbarton Group said Tuesday it had acquired 6 E. 43rd St. in Midtown Manhattan. The firm secured a $300-million loan from Brookfield to finance both the acquisition and redevelopment of the property, previously known as the Emigrant Savings Bank Building. The financing will support the purchase and the conversion of the existing office building into a 400,000-square-foot residential tower designed by Gensler.
The project will deliver 441 residential apartments, including 111 affordable units through the 467-m program. Construction is set to begin immediately.
A Los Angeles-based entity that acquired a mixed-use building in Midtown last year for $36 million is now filing to convert a portion of its office spaces into residential units, records show.
Jason Kang, a representative for the limited liability company Bando Geny, which appears to be the U.S. partner of South Korea’s Bando Engineering & Construction Co., submitted plans to the Department of Buildings this week to convert three commercial floors of a 13-story building at 65 W. 55th St. into 30 apartments. That would bring the residential portion of the building up to 100 rental units.
The first floor would remain the same, with restaurant and retail space currently taken up by Cassidy’s Pub and previously occupied by Juice Press and Tang Pavillion, while the second floor would be converted into five dwelling units; the third would change from medical and dental offices into 13 apartments, and the fourth floor would also change from offices to 12 dwelling units, records show. There is a 24-spot parking garage in the cellar, records show; it would also remain unchanged.
Built in 1962, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, the property already contains 70 rental units on its upper floors, two of which are currently available — a three-bedroom penthouse apartment is listed for rent at $10,927 per month, and a four-bedroom on the 10th floor is listed for $11,642 per month, according to StreetEasy.
Office-to-residential conversion starts reached 3.3 million square feet in 2024, more than double the 1.6 million square feet in starts recorded in 2023, according to a new report from Cushman & Wakefield.
That momentum has continued into 2025, with 4.1 million square feet of conversions already commenced through August, surpassing last year’s total in just eight months, the report said. An additional 8.8 million square feet of projects are proposed for “post-2025,” marking the most active conversion period since 2008, according to C&W.
An underutilized Midtown office building is set to become over 100 studio apartments in its next life. Infinite Global Real Estate and Buttonwood Development, in partnership with 400 Capital Management, have acquired 29 West 35th Street, with plans to turn the 12-story tower into a rental building. The project marks the first major office-to-residential conversion in the neighborhood following the Midtown South rezoning, approved by the City Council this summer.
Brookfield Properties has filed plans with the New York City Department of Buildings to convert space on the fourth through 13th floors of Four Manhattan West, also known as 424-434 West 33rd Street, into 128 residential units.
Brookfield will be working with S9 Architecture and Engineering on the conversion, according to the New York Business Journal, which was first to report the news.
The conversion is expected to be completed sometime in 2027, according to Brookfield.
The redeveloped building includes amenities such as a fitness center, coworking space, bike rooms and tenant storage areas.
Four Manhattan West is a 13-story, 184,109-square-foot former industrial building that was built in 1913 and that Brookfield spent $47 million converting into modern offices, as Commercial Observer previously reported. This included everything from redesigning the lobbies to removing old steam heat pipes.
The newly renovated building offered 15,000-square-foot floorplates on floors four through 12 and a 11,446-square-foot penthouse with a 2,000-square-foot wraparound terrace. It is not yet clear how the residential design will translate from the building’s current office design.
Plans have been filed for an office-to-residential conversion of the Continental Bank Building in Manhattan’s Financial District.
An affiliate of InterVest Capital Group, 111 Wall GC LLC, filed the plans with the Department of Buildings on Tuesday for the 521-unit development at 30 Broad St. The site is currently home to a 48-story, 370,000-square-foot office building.
Architecture, design and planning firm Gensler is working with InterVest on the project, records show. Retail space will be offered on the first floor of the building. Planned amenities include a roof-deck, three simulator rooms, two media rooms, a club room, coworking space, a fitness center and other amenity lounges.
„A rendering of the conversion project taking shape a 6 E. 43rd St. in Midtown Manhattan. Approximately 25 percent of the property’s apartments will be affordable. Image courtesy of Gensler“
the structure will yield 11 condominium units with an average scope of 4,455 square feet, as well as 3,000 square feet of ground-floor restaurant space.
Originally constructed in the early 1960s, the 43-floor office tower’s aging brick envelope is being reskinned by MdeAS Architects with a cutting-edge porcelain and high-reflective metal panel facade system. The retrofit includes the installation of high-performing windows and a dramatic tenfold improvement in building insulation, resulting in a significant reduction in carbon emissions and energy use.
