| Shapes of Things to
Come The First and Second Avenue blocks that pass through Turtle Bay have remained relatively unchanged in recent years – a lively streetscape of local eateries, bars, small supermarkets and retail shops occupying the ground floor of elderly four- or five-story buildings. To the west, rising like a mighty, invincible Macedonian phalanx, stand ranks of Midtown office towers. The pressure for development of these older buildings has always been great. Now it is more powerful than ever. Change, for better or worse, is inevitable. The Macklowe organization has assembled the southeast corner of Second Avenue and 53rd Street and is building a 28-story luxury condominium. Foundations are nearly complete. Across Second Avenue from the Macklowe site is a vacant four-story tenement, a long-standing eyesore further disfigured by advertisement bills. This too is ripe for immediate development. Elsewhere in our neighborhood, the status of these buildings is a bit different. While removing rent controlled or stabilized residential tenants is time-consuming and often costly, it is far easier to deal with a small local business; all a developer has to do is wait until the lease expires and then evict the tenant. Old buildings occupied by ground floor commerce, with empty apartments above, are ready targets for replacement with new towers rising 25 to 30 floors. While the newcomers may have street-level retail spaces, what will occupy them is likely to be of totally different character – banks, chain restaurants, nationwide pharmacies, and so forth – than previously. It is rare that a former local business survives in this new environment. The buildings at 957 and 959 First Avenue, housing the Columbus Bakery and the Metropolitan Café, fall into this category. These structures have been acquired by a developer who may be waiting to buy Parnell’s, the pub on the 53rd Street corner, before proceeding. Billy’s Restaurant – a local fixture since the mid-1870’s, until its recent closing – is in a building at the corner of First Avenue and 52nd Street that has been owned by a Manhattan developer for nearly 20 years. How much longer will it wait to develop the site? The Mayfair, a few doors north, has been empty for a number of years. Finally, the owners of the Box Tree Restaurant, at 250 and 252 East 49th Street, have bought 254, the townhouse next door to the east, in what appears to be an attempt to assemble the entire southwest corner of Second Avenue and 49th street. Here, a 30-story residential tower is being contemplated, one that would rise only 20 feet east of the Turtle Bay Gardens Historic District. That would cast long morning shadows on the Gardens and change the entire atmosphere of the east end of 49th Street. All these developments are “as-of-right,” complying with existing zoning regulations and therefore allowing the developer to proceed without delay once building permits are issued. Anything built in a strip 100 feet wide east or west of First and Second Avenues falls into a maximum-density R-10 zoning district (or R-10 equivalent) housing. That means a building floor area can be 10 times that of the site upon which it is built. Additionally, unused space above adjoining lower buildings in the same zoning district may be transferred to the new construction via a “zoning lot merger.” (The extreme example of this is, of course, Trump World Tower on First Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets.) Finally, if a developer builds low-rent housing elsewhere in the City, then, under so-called “inclusionary” zoning, a 20 percent floor area bonus is granted. (There are no longer bonuses for outdoor areas such as plazas and arcades.) There are restrictions preserving the street wall on these R-10 avenues, as well as set-backs and tower sizes, which should preclude another Trump Tower-type behemoth. An example of what might now be expected to appear on a typical 100 x 100 avenue corner lot is the recently completed 32-story Grand Beekman at the southeast corner of First Avenue and 51st Street. The Turtle Bay Association cannot prevent these new buildings from being constructed; it can, however, use its best efforts to get the builders to respect – both in design and then actual construction – the neighborhood into which they will be rising.
The Turtle Bay Association is a nonprofit (501c3) community organization.
224 East 47th Street, New York City 10017 |
