[NYguy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/22/ny...pagewanted=all

Clock Ticking, Bloomberg Seeks Council Approval of East Midtown Rezoning Plan

By CHARLES V BAGLI
October 21, 2013

.....The initial rezoning plan contained a sunrise provision in which developers would have to wait five years before they could start building, to reduce competition with other current city-sponsored developments, like the Hudson Yards and the World Trade Center.

But the administration has since revised the rezoning plan to allow Mr. Levinson and a second developer, SL Green, to proceed more quickly.

SL Green owns a block bound by 42nd and 43rd Streets, between Madison and Vanderbilt Avenues. The company wants to demolish the three buildings on the site — none are taller than 20 stories — to build a 65-story, 1.6-million-square-foot tower, to be known as 1 Vanderbilt.

City officials and proponents of the project say that the new zoning would require them to build more than $100 million in improvements to the subway entrances and platforms, as well as a public space inside the building, with a large train-arrival board and a new entrance to Grand Central Terminal.