[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...TATE/130219931

Biggest developers eyeing massive LES project
Interest in building a six-acre, mixed-use project just south of the Williamsburg Bridge that is 40 years in the making draws 300 to a meeting with the city. Top architects are also queuing up.





By Matt Chaban
February 15, 2013

More than 300 people showed up Monday for an information session on the project hosted by the city's Economic Development Corp. and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. According to a copy of the attendance sheet obtained by Crain's, a number of the city's top developers, builders and designers were in the audience, along with local civic groups and cultural institutions.

Among the developers who sent representatives were such heavy hitters as Forest City Ratner, The Related Cos., the Lefrak Organization and Douglaston Development. Avalon Bay, the Arlington, Va.-based company that recently developed two large complexes on the Bowery, sent someone, as did Edward J. Minskoff Equities, which is developing a new office tower on Astor Place. There were a few high-profile upstarts at the presentation, including Ziel Feldman's HFZ Capital and DDG Partners, a developer of a number of downtown boutique condo projects. Affordable housing builders also made a strong showing, with Jonathan Rose Cos. and L+M Development among them.

Last year, the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area was rezoned by the city after more than 40 years spent trying to decide what to do with a handful of parking lots at the eastern end of Delancey Street. The eight-block area was cleared in the 1960s as part of urban renewal efforts, but they were never rebuilt and have languished for years as the city and locals fought over the fate of the plots.

The Bloomberg administration has made it a priority of getting this mega-development—along with a handful of others from Hudson Yards on the West Side to the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx—underway before the mayor's term expires this year. On Jan. 9, the EDC and the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development released a request for proposals for the parcels, with plans for 1.65 million square feet of new development.

This will include 1,000 apartments, 50% of which will be set aside as permanent affordable housing. EDC wants a 60/40 mix between housing and commercial development, with a mix of shops, community and cultural spaces and public open space, including a redesigned Essex Street Market. Bids are due May 6.

In addition to the city's top developers, many well-known design and construction names turned out for the meeting, including architects Robert A.M. Stern, SOM, Rafael Viñoly, Ishmael Leyva and Aquitectonica; engineers ARUP, Consentini Associates and Stantec; contractors Lend Lease and Cooper Robertson; and brokers Cassidy Turley and CBRE Group Inc. A number of community groups were also in attendance, including the Settlement Housing Fund, the Grand Street Settlement and Asian Americans for Equality, as well as cultural startups the Museum of Food & Drink and the Lowline, which wants to turn a neighboring trolley depot into an underground park.

This strong interest from some of the city's top firms only underscores how no corner of Manhattan remains untapped for development. Whereas top developers would have ignored, or even feared, the Lower East Side of yore, now it has become one of the last remaining frontiers for upscale development. As evidence, look no further than Extell's recent interest in developing a site near the Manhattan Bridge.