NEW YORK CITY — Gotham Organization, Inc., has broken ground on a $520 million, 1,238-unit residential development in Manhattan, containing almost an entire city block. The project spans West 44th to West 45th streets from 10th to 11th Avenues.
Included in the project are 556 luxury apartment units and 682 affordable housing units, divided among four buildings, as well as a sky terrace, a 10,000-square-foot interior courtyard, 15,000 square feet of retail space and 200-space parking garage. There will also be a total of 10,000 square feet of indoor recreational use, which will include two gyms, two playrooms, a lounge with a game room and demonstration cooking kitchen, as well as a smaller lounge.
A 31-story tower, located at the corner of 45th Street and 11th Avenue will contain the luxury apartments, with the affordable housing apartments in three additional buildings.
“The site was part of the Hudson Yards rezoning in 2005,” said Melissa Pianko, executive vice president of development for Gotham and the project manager. “Part of that was an agreement with the community board and the city of New York that the site would have at least 600 units of permanent affordable housing. The rest of it was up to us to figure out how to finance the project and make it feasible.”
Additionally, Gotham is building a new 95,000-square-foot, 630-student elementary school adjacent to the development, and renovating the former Elias Howe Public School 51 on the site to residential units, to be brought to market at a later date.
“We’ve always believed that the far West Side of Manhattan has tremendous potential for providing what our growing city needs: more jobs for New Yorkers, and more affordable housing for them to live in,” said Mayor Bloomberg in a statement. “In the near future, this development will provide homes for some 2,500 New Yorkers, but in the meantime it will grow our economy by creating 2,900 construction-related jobs.”
Primary funding for the project is being provided by the New York State Housing Finance Agency in the form of tax-exempt bonds, which are credit enhanced by a syndicate of lenders led by Wells Fargo Bank.
The nonprofit Housing Partnership, in conjunction with a Gotham affiliate, bought the land from the City of New York through the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Under the agreement, Gotham will provide $20 million to other affordable housing needs in Manhattan as well as $15 million to assist with funding for the school it’s building adjacent to the residential site.
Gotham Construction Co. is the construction manager for the project, Schuman Lichtenstein Claman and Efron is the architect and Thomas Balsley Associates is the landscape architect. Completion for the residential units is slated for 2014 and the school is expected to open in the fall of 2013.
“We know the submarket very well,” said Pianko. “We’ve been in New York for a long time and we feel that we have [accurately] analyzed the relative cost versus expected income. We think the returns will make sense at the end of the day when it’s all leased up. That could change, but based on slated market conditions we anticipate the project will do very well.”
— Savannah Duncan