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This morning, Governor Eliot Spitzer is announcing the sale of the West Side Railyards. The NY Times reports that the state and MTA will "formally begin soliciting bids for the development rights." Boy, does this bring us back to 2005. Of course, developers will need a boatload of patience and a boatload of money - the land was appraised last September to be worth $1.5 billion and it's estimated to cost $1 billion to simply build a platform over the railyards.
The city hopes to put lots of huge buildings on the land - back in May, the Times wrote, "the Bloomberg administration envisions the equivalent of five Empire State Buildings rising." From today's Times article:
Under the current plan, developers could build a total of about 12 million square feet of residential and commercial space. Prospective buyers would be able to bid on one or both of the railyards. Bidders would also have to submit offers with and without the High Line.The developers will also need to deal with the community, as well as city and state promises that things like the Moynihan station, 7 extension, and Jacob Javits center continue their progress.And developers who build rental apartments will be required to permanently set aside 20 percent of the units for low- and moderate-income tenants, said officials who have seen the bidding documents. The Bloomberg administration has also earmarked $40 million for the development of affordable housing on two city-owned sites nearby.
We've included some earlier info from the Hudson Yards Development Corp. after the jump.
Photograph of the West Side railyards by Triborough on Flickr
From the Hudson Yards Development Corporation:
Summary:
- Plan for WRY will be coordinated with the entire Hudson Yards area
- Plan allows for mixed-use development
- Plan will include generous open space and relate to the existing Hudson River and High Line parks
- Plan will include on and off-site affordable housing
- On-site – up to 20% of the rental units would be affordable through
the 80/20 program
Off-site locations:
- West 54th Street / MTA Site
- West 48th Street / DEP Site
- Plan will include a PS/IS school
- Plan will include office space for arts and non-profit uses
- Parking will be allowed, but not required, for WRY site
- Plans should incorporate green building standards
- WRY development plans are subject to ULURP and environmental review
- Guidelines should be flexible and promote compelling architectural design
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and to think they wanted to sell it for soooooo much less.
I don't care what gets built, just as long as it has a Duane Reade, a Starbucks, and a Chase branch.
So how many more people are we talking about that are going to be living in that area? 100,000? 250,000? 400,000? Since there ain't going to be getting any congestion pricing and we're not going to be getting that windfall of $500k from the Feds I sure hope those people like walking or biking because it'll be a mess getting to work in the morning.
*A* Starbucks? With that amount of real estate there'll be at least six of them.
So how many more people are we talking about that are going to be living in that area? 100,000? 250,000? 400,000?
Good thing they're building the Second Avenue Subway! Oh wait. . .
Can we please have no superblocks and follow the actual city grid? Is that too much to ask?
Sheesh..here we go again. You just know they're gonna mess this up. At least it's not a stadium.
Can we please have no superblocks and follow the actual city grid? Is that too much to ask?
Why? The grid sucks. Combined with the various inane building codes over the last century it has created a boring landscape almost completely devoid of nice public spaces. New York is best viewed from New Jersey or the roof deck of the Met - you can't see the buildings from the narrow streets.
And the grid just encourages driving.
i want the city to buy or bette middler or someone so that we can have another park!
Graying guests is a bit annoying and ineffective. The "guest" handle is clear enough. Besides, the "member" hadles are no less annonymous after all. "Accountability" in this case is just a choice for folks to build a clear identity, which should be a choisce, not a reqïrement. Most readers of Gothamist got past 8th grade and can tell at a glance if we want to fully read a post or not. How can the the cutting edge of NYC blogs be so internet retro?
If the Dolands want to build a New MSG, why don't they buy this - with out any government funding or other underhanded help like abusing eminent domain - and put up a new MSG there.
Or even better have Ratner put his Ghery monstrosity there where it is in sort of an out of the way place and it can piss off the Dolands.
Hey Toby, who are the Dolands?
Twenty percent for low and moderate income housing? Where do I sign up to get my luxury living subsidized by taxpayers and my neighbors?
I meant Dolans. Sorry about the typo.
Twenty percent for low and moderate income housing? Where do I sign up to get my luxury living subsidized by taxpayers and my neighbors?
Sorry but the government essentially defines moderate income at about $50,000 a year which means those of us "wealthy folks" i.e. in the $60,000 to $90,000 range will just have to save up for that $800,000 studio.
First off the Dolan want the new MSG for free, and the cocksuckers that they are, and Silver, the whore that he is will make sure they get it wrapped up in the Moynihan. They should all be in jail.
Ratner should stay in Brooklyn where he and the Nets belong.
It should have been a stadium, but now since that's been scrapped - so should the remnants of the grand plan that are still going forward in the surrounding area. The planned 11th Ave boulevard is an abortion.
Oh, and in addition to the 500mil we're not getting from the congestion plan, we should re-instate the commuter tax, and include Brooklyn in that too; call it a combo asshole/hipster tax!
The Nets belong in the Meadowlands, permanently.
Or how about that nice arena being built in Newark?
The one place they do not belong is in Brooklyn.