NEW YORK | Second Avenue Subway

New York Parks & Infrastructure
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MTA: Cost-cutting efforts will help pay for expansion projects

By Gloria Pazmino on November 3, 2014

Top officials from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority told the City Council on Monday they have figured out how to pay for more than half the agency’s $32 billion in planned expansion projects.

“I’m pleased to report, [the funds] will come from savings we’ve realized as we continue the most aggressive cost-cutting in our history,” William Wheeler, director of special project development and planning at the M.T.A., said during a hearing about the city’s transportation infrastructure with the Council’s transportation and economic development committees.

Those cost-cutting measures include a reduction in operating costs and staffing levels, as well as savings achieved through new labor agreements without raising fares or tolls so far.

Wheeler told the Council the M.T.A.'s expansion projects include beginning construction on the second phase of the Second Avenue subway line from the Upper East Side to East Harlem, continuing to advance East Side access and beginning Penn Access, a project that will add four Metro-North stations in the Bronx and a link directly into Penn Station

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Investing in Future Quiet

Manhattan Apartments Next to Construction Sites

By Robin Finnoct, Oct. 10, 2014

…Alex Ostroff was not certain what his neighborhood would be, but he was well aware of what he was prepared to pay when he made a career-related move to New York City from his native Montreal. Still, he experienced a panic attack this summer after putting a $500 deposit on a spacious one-bedroom rental at 300 East 70th Street at an alluringly below-market rate, $1,800 a month.

“The apartment was so beautiful I didn’t even notice any noise or construction,” he recalled. “So I walked out of the lobby feeling good and all of a sudden I realized, ‘Whoa, wait a minute, this is Second Avenue, it’s construction central.’ ”

Determined to do his due diligence, Mr. Ostroff, 26, the director of marketing for a boutique hotel group, went outside for an impromptu Q&A session with a construction crew. What he needed to know, he politely told them, was whether his rental really was too good to be true. Was the advent of the Second Avenue subway going to make his life intolerable?

“I asked them to please give me the inside scoop if there was going to be a lot of TNT and explosions going on,” he said. “And they laughed and told me not to worry, that my timing was perfect, because they were finished with that phase of the work on my block.

…“Sure, it looks like a hot mess up top outside,” Ms. Gamel said. “But you’ve got to remember the actual construction is underground and his apartment is on the fourth floor. Truth be told, Alex was on a tight budget, wanted some bang for his buck, and actually liked the neighborhood.”

He signed the papers and moves in this week. “Everything else I looked at had a catch, too,” said Mr. Ostroff, who figures he can tolerate lingering construction activity and was mildly miffed not to be offered an option beyond a one-year lease.

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Complete the Full Second Avenue Subway Now

By Dan Quart on August 7, 2014

Ask a hundred people who live on the East Side what they love about their neighborhood and you’ll hear a hundred different answers. Ask the same people what is their least favorite thing about where they live and you’ll hear the same refrain over and over: it’s too far from the subway!

New York neighborhoods live or die based on their proximity to public transit. The far East Side, from Third Avenue to East End Avenue, has always suffered due to its distance from the Lexington line, the only subway line operating in the 8 full avenue blocks between Central Park and the East River.The Lexington line serves an average of 1.3 million riders each day – more than the average daily ridership of any other entire transit system in the US.

The Second Avenue Subway offers the promise of public transit to the East Side to neighborhoods long isolated. When Phase 1 opens in 2016, the entire East Side will enjoy the same easy access to subways as the rest of Manhattan. New Yorkers who live and work on the far East Side will finally know what it’s like to catch a train just a couple of blocks away.

…Extending the Q train four stops only helps Upper East Siders travelling to destinations near Broadway (mostly on the West Side in midtown.); it does nothing to connect uptown and downtown on the East Side, the route where the need is most critical. True transportation equity requires a full build of the Second Avenue Subway, from 125th Street to Hanover Square.

It is unclear if the MTA is prepared to seamlessly move forward with construction. The MTA’s Twenty-Year Capital Needs Assessment, released in October 2013, devotes only three paragraphs (out of 140 pages) to the Second Avenue Subway construction, noting that “[i]mplementation of future…phases will need to take into account MTA’s ability to fund and plan each functional incremental stage.” The decade old Environmental Impact Statement for the project has not yet been updated, one of the very first steps the MTA will have to take to plan for future phases. As of yet, no concrete steps have been taken to ensure that construction of the Second Avenue Subway will continue past Phase 1.

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M.T.A. ‘reinvention’ panel awaits its report

By Dana Rubinstein on November 11, 2014

On September 4, the commission Governor Andrew Cuomo charged with “reinventing” the M.T.A. held its final meeting.

More than two months later, the commission’s members said they’re not sure why the fruit of their labors—a report recommending how best to ready the authority for the demands of the 21st century—hasn’t been released yet.

“I have no idea,” emailed Enrique Peñalosa, the former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, an advocate of bus rapid transit, and a member of the commission.

…In May, as Governor Andrew Cuomo’s re-election campaign was kicking into high gear, he directed the M.T.A., which he effectively controls, to “empanel a Transportation Reinvention Commission to examine its network and develop a plan for the future.”

The M.T.A. complied, convening a star-studded panel of transit experts that proceeded to hear public testimony from the region’s leading transportation stakeholders.

Earnest commission meetings ensued.

“There were innovative and bold ideas discussed on the commission and I’m looking forward to the recommendations being released," said Veronica Vanterpool, a commission member and executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. "With the M.T.A.’s draft capital program having been released late September, and a $15.2 billion anticipated deficit in that program, a timely release of the recommendations will provide a blueprint now for discussing the capital needs of the 2015-2019 program while also priming the discussion for the priority investments of the next 50 years.”

…Now, commissioners aren’t sure what’s going on, with some speculating that politics might have something to do with it.

“Clearly the whole process is related to the Governor political needs,” emailed Peñalosa. “Which does not invalidate it. In the end, it is a way to generate consciousness, or pressure, for more funds for M.T.A.”

The governor’s office had no immediate comment.

“The Commission has done a lot of great work, but could not address the funding challenges facing the M.T.A. until the proposed Capital Plan for 2015-19 was released in October and the public review of the plan commenced," said Kathryn Wylde, president and C.E.O. of the Partnership for New York City and a commission member, in an emailed statement. “Now that this process is underway, I assume that the Commission will reconvene in order to help determine how existing resources can be used more efficiently and where the new revenues needed to maintain and expand the system will come from.”

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It’s clear that the full subway line is needed now. Problem is going to be money as usual, despite the fact that the city is thriving on the huge amounts that is around.

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[VIDEO] The Wrong Track: The Saga of the 2nd Avenue Subway (1975)
This 51st State report, which originally aired in 1975 on Channel Thirteen in New York, looks at New York City’s repeated attempts to complete a second subway line on the East Side of Manhattan. The project is still not finished after over a half-century of delays

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M.T.A. Told It Must Focus on Repairs, Not Growth

By Patrick Mcgeenhan, October. 23, 2014

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority should concentrate on improving the condition of its existing transit systems before plowing ahead with the second phase of the Second Avenue subway and other expansion projects, a watchdog agency said on Thursday.

In a report that called the authority’s priorities “misplaced,” the Citizens Budget Commission called for more emphasis on safety and increasing the capacity of the New York City subway system. The subways have been carrying heavier and heavier loads, exceeding six million riders on four separate days last month.

The analysis comes as the authority is seeking aid from Albany to cover a huge funding gap in its $32 billion capital plan for the next five years. The authority’s available money would cover only about half of the proposed spending, leaving transit officials to borrow heavily or find other sources of revenue to close the gap.

But Charles Brecher, the consulting research director for the budget commission, said the authority should reconsider its quest for additional money. “Let’s be sure we’re spending the money on the right things,” he said. Mr. Brecher said the authority was “paying too much attention to these new-start projects and not enough to fixing what we have and putting in modern communications and signals.”

In response, Adam Lisberg, a spokesman for the authority, said the transit agency hoped that the capital program, which it released last month, would “spur a wide-ranging conversation about capital priorities as well as capital spending.” But he added that the spending plan “makes clear that expanding the network, as well as providing enhancements such as countdown clocks and next-generation payment systems, are very important to the M.T.A. and to our customers.”

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Second Avenue, After Construction

Saving Small Business: East Side leaders look for ways to protect Second Avenue businesses once the subway project is completed

By Daniel Fitzsimmons, published November 5, 2014 AT 3:00 PM

The neighborhood’s portion of the project, from E. 63rd St. to E. 96th St., is slated to be completed in December 2016. And the small businesses that have long sat in the shadow of a construction command center or next to a muck house are looking forward to the increased foot traffic and popularity of an area rejuvenated by a new transportation option.

But how long will that last? How long until the five-story row houses come down and are replaced by high rises with retail rents that only large and established brands can afford? What will become of the small businesses that have stuck it out for eight years hoping for a brighter day?

These are questions that members of Community Board 8 are asking, some of whom already see signs of increased interest from developers in the neighborhood. “The developers are here now, putting together sites, buildings are already coming down on First, Second and Third Avenue and the side streets in between,” said Dave Rosenstein, a member of the board’s Second Avenue Subway Task Force. “The impact of this is just beginning.”

“If you stand at 79th Street and look north, you’ll see the tenement style buildings, the soft sights, and they’re usually the first to go,” said Teri Slater, co-chair of the board’s zoning committee. “They’re considered affordable housing and they’re unfortunately the first to come down. That’s the pattern of development we’re seeing here on the Upper East Side.”

The zoning committee met recently with Basha Gerhards, deputy director of land use for the Manhattan Borough President’s Office, to discuss zoning options similar to the Neighborhood Retails Streets Proposal that was implemented on the Upper West Side in 2012 with then-council member Gale Brewer’s backing. Brewer has since been elected Manhattan Borough President.

The proposal, referred to as the Upper West Side mom and pop zone, amended the zoning laws along a swath of the Upper West Side - from 72nd St. to 110th St. along Amsterdam and Columbus avenues - to limit new and expanding storefronts to 40 feet across and lobby widths to 25 feet. The idea, proponents of the zoning change say, is to curb the ubiquity and dominance of banks and pharmacies that have seemingly displaced independent stores.

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Good coverage of our infrastructure, Eveningstar! :thumbsup:

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Tolls for East River Bridges Brought Up as Possible Way to Fill MTA Capital Plan Gap

By Jose Martinez on November 11, 2014

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…A panel kicked it around after Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Thomas Prendergast talked to the General Contractors Association about the agency’s $32 billion capital plan, which still faces a $15 billion funding gap.

One way to fill that gap? You guessed it, by tolling drivers crossing the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges. That, in turn, could fund projects like the expansion of the Second Avenue Subway and speed up signal modernization that would boost capacity on crowded subway lines.

“There needs to be a lot more money contributed by auto users who benefit from the fact that there’s not gridlock on every bridge and in every tunnel and in Midtown Manhattan even more than there is because so many people are taking transit,” said Carol Kellermann of the Citizens Budget Commission.

It’s not an easy sell.

“My own gut is that that’s not going to be the solution to this capital plan, in part, again, because of the politics,” said Marc Shaw, senior advisor to the chancellor for fiscal policy at the City University of New York.

However, it’s still getting a big push from the Move New York Campaign, which envisions putting tolls on the East River spans and reducing those on other bridges in the city.

“Simply by creating a fairer tolling system, where everybody pays a little bit and everybody gets something back, you could unleash a lot of additional new revenue that could help fund not just mass transit, but the roads and bridges that drivers in the area depend on,” said Alex Matthiessen, campaign director for Move NY.

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Funding Battle Looms for New York’s Subway, Buses, Bridges

By Andrew Tanger, November 19, 2014 9:19 p.m.

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Passengers exit at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Castle Hill Avenue subway station in the Bronx. KEVIN HAGEN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Looming fare and toll increases by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will likely be overshadowed by a bigger battle over overall transit funding next year.

Plans to boost revenue from passengers and drivers by 4% starting next year have long been in the works. They track expected annual inflation and are about half as steep as originally planned.

But transit advocates and some MTA officials say steeper increases or service cuts are on the horizon if the authority can’t secure new, more stable funding. The most immediate challenge: finding money to pay for $32 billion of repair and construction projects over the next half decade.

“If they don’t, there are much larger fare increases lurking around the corner, and that’s the real scandal,” John Raskin, executive director of the Riders Alliance, a transit advocacy group.

Jeffrey Kay, an MTA board member, also predicted more potential fare increases without increased funding from other sources. “There’s going to be more—there’s no doubt about it,” he said.

…Riders of the New York City subway, the nation’s largest mass transit network, last year shouldered 63.6% of the system’s $4.8 billion in operating costs, the third-highest so-called farebox recovery ratio for such U.S. systems, according to Federal Transit Administration data.

An MTA spokesman noted the authority measures the recovery ratio differently, and said the Federal Transit Administration figures don’t fully take into account all of the system’s costs.

This week, the MTA unveiled proposals for riders of its subway, buses and trains, and drivers crossing its bridges and tunnels, to pay more. Public hearings are scheduled next month before an expected MTA decision in January.

…The fare and toll increases are expected to yield about 4% more revenue for the MTA, or $210 million next year, starting March 1. Another set of toll and fare increases to generate 4% more revenue is scheduled in 2017.

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But the authority, which has an approximately $14 billion annual operating budget, doesn’t know how it will pay for about $15 billion in major repairs and big-ticket expansion projects over the next five years.

Mr. Prendergast has been hitting the industry-group breakfast circuit to argue his case for funding the MTA’s next capital plan, though he has stopped short of specific proposals.

Robert Foran, the authority’s chief financial officer, said Wednesday that one of the authority’s key funding sources, the so-called payroll mobility tax, “is under constant threat.” That tax remains controversial in New York City suburbs.

…The MTA has identified a $15 billion funding gap in its capital plan. The bulk of its $32 billion in projects from 2015 through 2019 involve upgrades to its aging subway system, its bus network and the Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road.

The plan would also fund an expansion of Metro-North service in the Bronx, and the service into Penn Station. Other big-ticket projects to get funding in the plan include the next phase of the Second Avenue Subway project, and an LIRR station under Grand Central Terminal known as East Side Access.

Charles Brecher, consulting research director at the Citizens Budget Commission, a watchdog group, said higher fares, new tolls and higher fees for drivers might be needed.

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How NYC Could Get More Transit Funding From Developers

By Stephen Miller on Monday, November 10, 2014

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The “lipstick building” is one of only 10 developments that have taken advantage of the city’s “subway bonus” since 1982. Photo: Wally Gobetz/Flickr

As the MTA capital plan funding gap has come into focus, there’s been a lot of discussion about how new development can help pay for the transit service it requires. It turns out the city already has a tool that links real estate with transit improvements, but it’s so limited that it’s been used to fund transit upgrades only 10 times in more than three decades. For a more robust model, planners should look to San Francisco.

In 1982, the Department of City Planning created the “subway bonus,” which allows developers to construct buildings up to 20 percent larger than normally allowed. In exchange, the developer must pay for and install subway station improvements requested by the city.

The subway bonus only applies to sites adjacent to a subway station. At first, it only covered qualifying sites in Midtown. The program was expanded in 1984 to more of Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn; in 1986, a slightly modified subway bonus was created for the Court Square area of Long Island City. In addition, the city requires developers atop future Second Avenue Subway stops to keep a public easement in new development for future station entrances.

Although tools to extract transit improvements from developers pop up sporadically in the city’s zoning code, only 10 projects have used the subway bonus program since it was first created in 1982, according to a DCP report [PDF]. The report also lists two completed projects and one proposal that offered subway improvements using other incentive programs.

Most of these projects brought upgrades like wider platforms, new or expanded walkways between stations, elevator installations, and redesigns to allow more natural light into subway stations, among other changes

…The city is moving forward with a modified version of the subway bonus on Vanderbilt Avenue, where it is working with developer SL Green to swap increased density for a pedestrian plaza and station improvements beneath Grand Central Terminal.

While this handful of projects over the years have provided beneficial upgrades to the subway system, it’s hard to see them as anything more than spot improvements that occur only if a big new office building happens to be located on top of a subway station. New development a block away from the subway creates just as much demand for transit, but there’s no mechanism in the city’s zoning code to recapture the costs of providing that service. What’s missing is a more comprehensive value capture system.

The city’s biggest value capture experiment to date is the scheme it used to fund the 7 train extension to Hudson Yards. The city paid for the project by banking on future property tax revenue from new development. When that new development failed to materialize as quickly as planned, city taxpayers were left holding the bag.

Instead of making the risky decision to rely on future revenue to fund an enormously expensive project, the city could require developers to pay an up-front impact fee when a project is built. San Francisco created a transit impact fee for new downtown development in 1981, and expanded the program citywide in 2004. Today, it generates millions of dollars each year for transit. San Francisco’s decades of experience could be a starting point [PDF 1, 2]. For example, New York could tie a transit impact fee to specific transit corridors. It could also link the fee to a commensurate reduction in parking requirements to offset the cost.

Revenue from the real estate sector can be volatile, but transit impact fees have two key advantages. Unlike the Hudson Yards financing plan, which relies on promised revenues, impact fees are cash in hand for the transit provider. And unlike the regional real estate transfer taxes already collected for the MTA, a transit impact fee can be targeted to areas where new development places the greatest strain on transit services.

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33

America’s Infrastructure Disinvestment Will Slow the Development of a Sustainable Economy

Steven Cohen, Executive Director, Columbia University’s Earth Institute
Posted: 11/24/2014 9:16 am EST


This is the 50th anniversary of New York’s Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the span that connects Staten Island with Brooklyn. As a child growing up in Brooklyn I remember watching its towers rise as if by magic. I always connected it with the 1964 World’s Fair which took place the same year the bridge opened, thinking they were both signs of the dazzling modern world that we would all get to live in. The bridge remains as beautiful as ever, although it eventually led to a great deal of poorly planned development in Staten Island, and its rising tolls remain a source of frustration to many who need to use it. Still, like New York’s third water tunnel and the Second Avenue Subway it is a sign of New York’s willingness to invest in the future. Infrastructure in a place like New York is a matter of survival. The City’s $20 billion climate resiliency plan includes major improvements in critical pieces of the City’s infrastructure, and the need for this investment transcends politics.

But unfortunately New York is an exception; throughout America, disinvestment in infrastructure is far more typical. America’s focus seems to be on individual spending, not investment in community resources. We refuse to tax ourselves and the signs of neglect are everywhere. Our airports are second-rate, our roads are crumbling, our rail system is a joke, and our power grid is inefficient and a long way from the smart grid we will need to make the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. According to an article in The Economist earlier this year:

America saw two great booms in infrastructure spending in the past century, the first during the Great Depression… and the second in the 1950s and 60s, when most of the interstate highway system was. Since then, public infrastructure spending as a share of GDP has declined to about half the European level.

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Local- Express

11-26-2014

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Alfred H. Brand is currently a senior partner of Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, which he joined in 1968. Brand has, in his over 46-year career as a geotechnical engineer, had a major role in projects including the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows and River East in Astoria; the new Yankee Stadium in The Bronx; Battery Park City, 42nd Street Development, and the Second Avenue Subway in Manhattan; and the Cross Harbor Rail Tunnel in Brooklyn, among many other monumental projects.

As Project Manager and Partner-in-Charge, Brand has directed a wide variety of foundation, tunnel, earth fill and waterfront design projects, including buildings, transportation structures, bulkheads, wharves, piers and cellular structures. In addition to working throughout the United States, he has considerable experience overseas, including assignments in Panama, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Germany.

NB: What was your involvement with the Second Avenue Subway?

AB: My firm was engaged for the preliminary engineering of the Second Avenue Subway Project and I worked on the project team from 2001 to 2004. In that time we made borings and did other exploratory work all along Second Avenue to define the underground conditions. We particularly needed to define where rock is shallow and where rock is deep in order to develop the plans for construction of the subway. When preliminary engineering was completed in 2004, our role for the design team ended. We then took on various assignments for contractors building the first part of the subway. My partners at the firm designed excavation support systems and roadway decking for projects at 96th Street and 86th Street. We also did instrumentation monitoring. We are currently awaiting the advertisement for design services for the next phase of the subway project, which we will be pursuing with one of the preeminent design teams in the city.

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This is something related to post #28 (2nd avenue retail) and was written a few months earlier…

All Aboard? 2nd Avenue Subway Set to Transform Retail

The 2nd Avenue subway line stands to redefine Yorkville and East Harlem retail—paving the way for new tenants while ousting some old timers.

By Gus Delaporte 5/22 12:30PM

http://nyocommercialobserver.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/sas64thstreet201201.jpg?w=300&h=225

The landscape north of 72nd Street along Second Avenue has long been dominated by residential towers and corner grocers. Mom-and-pop retailers are far more present there than on Lexington and Third Avenues, where H&M, J.Crew and Brooks Brothers have all committed to space in recent years and where a Whole Foods is on the way.

But with the debut of the Second Avenue subway on the calendar for late 2016, the retail terrain in Yorkville may be set to change.

As construction tunnels its way through the underbelly of the Upper East Side ahead of the line’s delayed (and delayed and delayed) debut, retail brokers are already pondering future possibilities east of Third Avenue. With 200,000 daily riders expected to trade the overcrowded 4, 5 and 6 trains for the 2nd Avenue line’s T and Q trains, the stretches of Yorkville more readily associated with residential towers and modest independents could stand to receive increased attention.

“In retail, consistently the most important thing is proximity to the subway; it’s the No.1 driver of rent, and every broker and landlord in the city would agree with me on that, and that’s why it’s so exciting,” said Alexander Hill, a senior director at Eastern Consolidated.

Already, landlords in close proximity to the planned stations at 72nd, 86th and 96th Streets are “selling the dream,” according to brokers, and raising retail rents above the current market value of around $100 per square foot in anticipation of the subway’s grand opening…

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First look at a Second Avenue Subway station

By Steve Cuozzo on December 7, 2014 | 12:03am

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The Second Avenue Subway — 63rd Street Station

Yes, Virginia, there is a Second Avenue Subway.

If you don’t believe it — after all, New Yorkers have waited for the mythical railroad since the late 1920s when the first test borings were made — the proof is in this picture.

Part of a construction wall came down last week on the Lexington Avenue/63rd Street F station’s downtown platform.

Disbelieving straphangers gazed in wonder at an apparition: the new passenger platform for the Q train, which will be extended from Seventh Avenue and 57th Street to Second Avenue and 96th, connecting with the F at East 63rd.

They even saw a train: not for riders but for crews “doing all the necessary work to connect the lines,” said MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz.

It was a first, fleeting look at an actual station for the new line — ­unlike widely seen tunnel images.

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The 63rd Street platform wall was filled in a few days later and Ortiz couldn’t say when it would next be taken down.

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Can’t attend the MTA toll hike public hearing? Send us your questions

By Vincent Barone | December 10, 2014 at 1:43 PM

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is coming to Staten Island this evening, Dec. 10, to hold a public hearing on toll hike proposals for 2015.

Can’t make the hearing? Ask your questions for the MTA in the comment section below and we’ll make sure your voice is heard. Residents can also submit comments to the MTA online.

Here’s what you need to know:…

WHY THE INCREASE?

MTA biennial fare hikes date back to a 2009 budget agreement. Since, fares have increased three times. Another set of increases is in store for 2017 to help combat the authority’s current $30 billion of debt.

If the MTA can’t find government subsidies to fill the $15 billion funding gap in its proposed $32 billion capital budget for 2015 through 2019, steeper increases could be on the horizon.

That’s because the operating budget, which includes fares, tolls and expenses like salaries and wages for MTA staff members (conductors, bus drivers, mechanics, etc.), also includes capital plan debt payments. The more money that the MTA has to borrow for capital projects like the Second Avenue subway, the more pressure there is to raise fares, according to transit officials.

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http://www.samschwartz.com/portals/0/images/case-studies/second%20ave%20subway/second-ave-subway-3.jpg
http://www.samschwartz.com/CaseStudies/SecondAvenueSubwayOutreach.aspx

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http://continuingeducation.construction.com/article.php?L=5&C=215&P=3

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Second Avenue Subway Hits Key Milestone With Completion Of 86th Street Station Shell

December 18, 2014 10:59 AM

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The 86th Street station cavern mezzanine level slab, looking north on Oct. 13, 2014. (credit: Metropolitan Transportation Authority/Patrick Cashin)

NEW YORK (CBS New York) – The highly anticipated Second Avenue Subway has hit another key milestone.

The cavern for the 86th Street station was completed on time, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced Thursday.

Work on the $332 million station began back in 2011 and required extensive excavation as well as the creation of a huge concrete shell to encompass the station.

“We have now completed 76% of the work needed to build Phase 1 of the Second Avenue Subway. This project will benefit residents of the Upper East Side in so many ways,” said Michael Horodniceanu, President, MTA Capital Construction.

There’s still work to be done on the stations air supply, elevator and escalators, among other things

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New York’s Second Avenue Waits for Building Plans to Jell

Strip in Yorkville Pinched by Vacant Buildings Before New Development

By Lucy Cohen Blatter on December 18, 2014 9:15 p.m. ET

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Buildings on Second Avenue and 79th Street where a luxury residential tower is planned. The Wall Street Jouenal

Two luxury high-rises are on the horizon for a small strip of Yorkville that has been home to mostly low-rise buildings and mom-and-pop restaurants for decades. But for now, a handful of the tenement-style buildings—located on the east side of Second Avenue between 80th and 81st streets—stand empty, waiting for construction to begin.

Three eateries that rented space in the now-empty buildings were relocated or closed during the summer. Pig Heaven, which was at 1540 Second Ave. for 30 years, has since relocated to Third Avenue. Irish pub Johnny Foxes closed, and Cascabel Taqueria, a Mexican restaurant that had been at the corner of 80th and Second, moved several doors up to 1556 Second.

Both Cascabel’s old and new locations are owned by Icon Realty Management, a residential developer that also has bought all but three buildings on the east side of Second Avenue over the past seven years, according to city records. Icon also purchased air rights to other properties on the block, and another building just around the corner—on 80th just east of Second.

With the purchased buildings now empty, Icon plans to develop six of the buildings into a luxury residential tower, according to people familiar with the matter. For now, however, no permits have been filed.

Icon recently built 985 Park Ave. between 83rd and 84th streets and work is nearly complete on 222 E. 81st St. between Second and Third avenues—both residential buildings. And plans are well under way for Icon’s next development—1562 Second—which will stand less than a block away from the empty assemblage of buildings, on the northeast corner of 81st and Second. Permit applications already have been filed for a 14-story building to replace two current structures.

Nikolai Fedak, founder of pro-development website New York Yimby, said 1562 Second will feature 11 floor-through apartments plus a duplex averaging 3,400 square feet each and the ground floor will have 2,192 square feet of retail space. It hasn’t been decided whether they will be condos or rentals, according to Mr. Fedak, who has seen Icon’s plans for 1562 Second.

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…“We’re suffering,” says Haider Imam, manager of Wine Emporium, a liquor store on the west side of Second across from the empty buildings. “We’re losing about $2,000 a day because we don’t have people coming in from those empty buildings. And how long is it going to take them to build those high-rises?”

Cascabel owner David Chiong thinks restaurants that were previously in the area actually helped his business and he looks forward to tenants attracted by new buildings.

“I always think competition is healthy,” he said. “When you have a block filled with restaurants it brings people to you, and you become part of a rotation.”

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…Jay Gilbert, a retail broker with Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, said businesses are increasingly interested in the area as well.

“Relative to two or three years ago, interest has spiked, because we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said, referring to the subway tunnel.

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