Quote:
Originally Posted by The New York Lion
Mr. Holliday, CEO of SL Green, actually has said he wishes he had 20 more floors at the top of the building. That's how much demand there has been.
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Yeah, but they got a pretty decent FAR on the site (33 I believe). That just goes to show, although the City upzoned the area, the artificial limits still cut the potential of what could be built. The sites immediately bordering Grand Central should have been granted "unlimited" FAR. That just means developers would have been able to build to the market, and not have to battle through multiple approval processes. And it's not as if the FAR bonuses are outright, they have to pay a significant amount of money just to get to 33.
It's a similar method to how the skyscrapers are being built in Hudson Yards. There was a proposal by City Planning for some sites with unlimited FARs (50 Hudson, 55 Hudson, 3 Hudson, the Spiral, and even 2 Penn), but the City Council (of course) didn't like the aspect of not having control. Technically though, there would have been some limit on size of those buildings, because like in east Midtown, it was never a blanket upzoning. All of the Hudson Yards sites require payments to achieve maximum zoning FARs, and they transfer development rights from the railyards.
So, while it's good that the city benefits from the extra funding for improvements and infrastructure, it just makes building in an already expensive city to build in even more expensive. That makes the amount of construction we see in the Hudson Yards and on the verge of in east Midtown that more impressive.