The city’s housing shortage is still going strong, but steps have been taken over the past several months to increase future housing. In September 2023, Mayor Adams unveiled a “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” plan to reform the zoning code, which would make it easier to build housing in every New York City neighborhood. One reform would be streamlining the environmental reviews for small and medium-sized housing proposals, which would allow those without adverse environmental impact to skip a longer review and start construction sooner.
“City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” also calls for allowing new homes above stores and on campuses, allowing accessory development units to take shape, easier office-to-residential conversions, and the elimination of a mandate that requires parking to be built alongside new homes (this would allow for more housing units). In total, it could create as many as 100,000 new homes, enough for over 250,000 New Yorkers. The public review process is underway, and a final vote by the City Council is expected for fall 2024.
“City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” also calls for allowing new homes above stores and on campuses, allowing accessory development units to take shape, easier office-to-residential conversions, and the elimination of a mandate that requires parking to be built alongside new homes (this would allow for more housing units). In total, it could create as many as 100,000 new homes, enough for over 250,000 New Yorkers. The public review process is underway, and a final vote by the City Council is expected for fall 2024.
In a separate initiative, Governor Hochul recently announced that up to 500 single-room occupancy (SRO) apartments would be rehabilitated across New York State. Many of the city’s existing SROs have been closed or converted into full-sized apartments, but as many as 40,000 are thought to still be around. They typically include one room with a sink and stove and access to a shared bathroom, and could provide much-needed housing for low-income renters or those struggling with homelessness.
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In the meantime, designers and developers remain busy working on new housing all over the city, from luxury condominiums to affordable and supportive developments. We take a look at 10 forthcoming projects below, some with sales underway and others still far on the horizon.
The 74, Lenox Hill
Design by Pelli Clarke & Partners | Completion estimated for mid-2025
Design by Pelli Clarke & Partners | Completion estimated for mid-2025
Sales have just launched at The 74, a soaring new condominium on the corner of Third Avenue and East 74th Street. All 42 units feature interiors by AD100 designer Rafael de Cardenas, floor-to-ceiling windows, 5" stained oak floors, primary suites with five-fixture baths, and in-unit washer/dryers. The first round of availabilities starts at $3.35 million for two-bedrooms, $4.9 million for three-bedrooms, and $12.5 million for a full-floor five-bedroom.
Images are not yet available for the apartments’ interiors, and the listings do not go into details about amenities, but the latest renderings of the design by Pelli Clarke Pelli took the real estate and architecture communities by storm. At 32 stories and 420 feet high, it is one of the tallest buildings in its Lenox Hill neighborhood. The design is distinguished by a podium on Third Avenue and a tower cantilevering over the 110-year-old walk-up building next door. The terracotta facade and penthouse setbacks nod to the city’s classic Art Deco design. However, the facade’s “pleated design” offers a decidedly modern twist by acting as a rain screen that reduces heating and cooling needs, thus making it more energy-efficient.
420 East 75th Street, Lenox Hill
Design by ARC Architecture + Design | Completion estimated for 2025
Design by ARC Architecture + Design | Completion estimated for 2025
In January 2023, the first renderings were revealed for a ten-unit condominium planned for 420 East 75th Street. In extending the two-story carriage house-style building to six stories, the first two stories would retain their red brick facade while the extension would be clad in gray brick with metal-framed windows. However, newer plans filed with the city call for a new construction seven-story, six-unit building, and a rendering released by Greenland Equities shows a consistent, light-colored facade with floor-to-ceiling windows. ARC Architecture + Design is still listed as the architect of record. An offering plan was filed in November 2023, but did not list a sellout price.
Carmen Villegas Apartments, East Harlem
Design by Magnusson Architecture & Planning | Completion TBD
Design by Magnusson Architecture & Planning | Completion TBD
Magnusson Architecture & Planning has revealed renderings of Carmen Villegas Apartments, a 28-story East Harlem senior housing development named in honor of local activist Carmen Villegas. Planned for a corner lot, the project will feature 217 affordable senior housing units, ground-floor commercial space, and community facility space. It is being developed in partnership between Ascendant Neighborhood Development Corporation, Xylem Projects, and Urban Builders Collective.
The project is aiming for Passive House certification and will include features like geothermal heating, cooling, and hot water, a solar canopy, central ERVs to provide fresh air for apartments and common spaces, and possible Building Integrated Photovoltaics. The east facade will be clad in a rainscreen and feature a mural paying homage to the neighborhood's artistic culture. Moreover, the project is working to identify opportunities to reduce embodied carbon through material selection, and is exploring resiliency strategies in light of its address in a future flood zone. It also includes a second phase sustainable retrofit of the neighboring Casita Park Apartments, with the goal of bringing the two buildings to net-zero operational carbon.
To encourage community and combat loneliness and isolation, Carmen Villegas Apartments will feature amenities like indoor lounges and community rooms with terrace access. Patch noted that a rezoning is required for this project to move forward, but that the local community board's response was largely positive. A construction timeline is not available.
HighBridge, Bronx
Design by Magnusson Architecture & Planning | Completion TBD
Design by Magnusson Architecture & Planning | Completion TBD
In a reimagining and redefinition of the existing Highbridge Residential Treatment Program, nonprofit Samaritan Daytop Village has enlisted Magnusson Architecture & Planning to design a modern, multi-use new development for the Highbridge section of the Bronx. The result is a 400,000-square-foot new building with a fully electric infrastructure and zero-waste goal, not to mention 316 affordable and supportive housing units, 106 family shelter units, a new treatment center, and community facility space.
The treatment center will be located in a separate area of the building with a discreet entrance/exit area, while the transitional housing and supportive and affordable housing units will occupy two other areas in the building space. The project will feature three terraces with passive and active recreation opportunities, along with such amenities as play equipment, an urban farm with chicken coop, and composting systems, to name but a few.
In April 2023, Highbridge was among the winners of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority's (NYSERDA) Buildings of Excellence competition, which recognizes awardees for demonstrating how carbon-neutral projects can also be beautiful and connected to the community. More recent developments are not yet available.
101 Fleet Place, Downtown Brooklyn
Design by JFA Architects & Engineers | Completion TBD
Design by JFA Architects & Engineers | Completion TBD
A new multifamily tower is taking shape at 101 Fleet Place—a 21-story, 292-unit rental tower situated at the crossroads of Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene. This discreetly tucked-away site, just east of Flatbush Avenue Extension, breathes new life into the space previously occupied by the low-slung Fleet Place Duffield Children’s Center.
The developer is the Jay Group who acquired the site from the Leser Group for $40 million in 2021. Designed by JFA Architects & Engineers, the 235-foot-tall tower boasts a faceted facade, promising an interesting play between light and shadow. Some upper-floor apartments will have terraces, and the building will have ground-floor retail and a 44-car parking garage.
The developer is the Jay Group who acquired the site from the Leser Group for $40 million in 2021. Designed by JFA Architects & Engineers, the 235-foot-tall tower boasts a faceted facade, promising an interesting play between light and shadow. Some upper-floor apartments will have terraces, and the building will have ground-floor retail and a 44-car parking garage.
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25 Conselyea Street, Williamsburg
Designer TBD | Completion TBD
Designer TBD | Completion TBD
In November 2021, real estate investor Michael Pitman acquired 25 Conselyea Street, an East Williamsburg development site, for $1.93 million. The site is currently occupied by a three-story house, but a new rendering released by Greenland Equities shows what looks to be a new boutique condominium with a tasteful stone facade, arched windows on the first and third levels, and greenery on the roof to hint at a terrace. Permits filed with the city call for eight housing units, and an estimated completion date is not available.
20 Orient Street, Williamsburg
Design by Asher Horowitz | Completion TBD
Design by Asher Horowitz | Completion TBD
As of this writing, the stretch of Orient Avenue between Metropolitan Avenue and Olive Street in East Williamsburg is largely occupied by low-rise houses with brick facades or clapboard siding. However, developer Greenland Equities has posted renderings of a tasteful brick building with arched windows in every unit and an arch above the entrance at 20 Orient Avenue.
Permits for this four-story, two-unit house were filed in late September 2023, but have not been fully approved; as such, limited information is available on this project. The developer also owns the building next door at 18 Orient Avenue, which they are converting from a three-family to a single-family house.
Permits for this four-story, two-unit house were filed in late September 2023, but have not been fully approved; as such, limited information is available on this project. The developer also owns the building next door at 18 Orient Avenue, which they are converting from a three-family to a single-family house.
60 Cedar Place, Bushwick
Design by S. Wieder Architects | Completion TBD
Design by S. Wieder Architects | Completion TBD
Steps from Bushwick's Central Avenue elevated train station serving the M line, 60 Cedar Street is an in-construction rental tower to rise 18 stories from a midblock lot between Central and Evergreen Avenues. According to approved building permits, the tower will accommodate 145 apartments, likely rentals, 158 parking spaces, and a community facility space. The multi-family project closed on a $54.6M closing loan earlier this year. S. Wieder Architect is the architect of record and renderings show a distinctively modern design with struts at the base, an alternating fenestration pattern with near full-height windows, and terrace opportunities along the uppermost floors.
27 East 4th Street, Noho
Design by BKSK Architects | Completion TBD
Design by BKSK Architects | Completion TBD
Given the spate of widely-publicized incidents where new construction projects have de-stabilized historic buildings - notably 14 Fifth Avenue, with residents of the neighboring 10 Fifth Avenue forced to evacuate - the plan to erect a new multifamily building adjacent to the Merchant’s House Museum, the city's first landmarked building, has drawn much ire from preservationists who are concerned that a new structure could possibly damage the circa-1832 rowhouse. (Certainly no one will miss the garage that previously stood on the site in the Noho Historic District.) The Landmarks Preservation Commission reviewed the design by BKSK Architects in 2021 with stipulations that the developer consider additional measures to minimize damage and unwanted settlement to its neighbor, and to consider proposing a different color brick. New renderings depict a more muted brickface with whiter mortar joints.
The project was previously planned as a hotel, but has been rumored to be residential instead. It was approved with modifications in December 2023, after years of back-and-forth between the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the developer, and local preservationists concerned about the project's effect on the Merchant's House Museum. Indeed, shortly after the new building was approved, the Merchant's House Museum called the decision "a permanent stain on the commission" and planned a lawsuit (h/t Village Green).
The Merchant's House Museum
One Farley, Midtown West
Designer TBD | Completion TBD
Designer TBD | Completion TBD
The four-story brick building at 320 West 31st Street isn’t much to look at now, and is being used to process and house incoming migrants, but developer Columbia Real Estate Management (CREM) has grander plans in store: Renderings of One Farley (as the project has been dubbed in an apparent nod to the landmarked James A. Farley Post Office across the street) show a seven-story extension with landscaped terraces, loggias, and a street-level garden. The building is intended to house offices on floors 2-11, with a garden on the rooftop and retail, restaurant, and community space on the ground floor.
It should be noted that when the site was acquired in November 2019, Manhattan's office market was going strong and the business world was abuzz about Meta’s enormous new office space above what is now Moynihan Train Hall. However, following the pandemic-induced lockdown and its impact on the office market, the 2024 estimated completion date seems overly optimistic. Meta itself is shrinking its office footprint in New York, having announced that it will not renew its lease at 30 and 55 Hudson Yards when it expires at the end of 2024 (h/t New York Post).
32-34 Walker Street, Tribeca
Designer SOMA Architects | Completion TBD
Designer SOMA Architects | Completion TBD
701 West 135th Street, Hamilton Heights
Designer SWA Architecture | Completion TBD
Designer SWA Architecture | Completion TBD
Would you like to tour any of these properties?
Just complete the info below.
Or call us at (212) 755-5544
Would you like to tour any of these properties?
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