A Tall Order for Bill

Is Gotham’s future as a commercial center at risk? At a meeting this week on plans for a new, 1.6 millionsquarefoot office tower near Grand Central that includes upgrades for the train terminal, some participants said they doubt the deal will be OK’d anytime soon, according to Capital New York.

“I’m skeptical,” said Michael Kwartler, a planner who’s written zoning laws for the area. “There are so many unanswered questions.” Kwartler worries the plan will “get held up” at the City Council “the same way Bloomberg’s East Midtown proposal was held up . . . and ultimately pulled.” Another development expert, Robert Shapiro, also wonders if it’s possible to line up all the ducks within a year.

If they’e right, it would be a huge setback for the city — and a blow to Mayor de Blasio’s credibility.

Remember, this tower was supposed to kick off a broader effort to revitalize East Midtown, a large chunk of Manhattan critical to the city’s commercial health.

Business tenants are turned off by buildings in this area, which average 70 years old. They’ve got their eyes set on more modern towers elsewhere. Yet city zoning rules, written decades ago, discourage upgrades. So East Midtown languishes.

ThenMayor Michael Bloomberg had an ambitious plan to rezone and redevelop the whole area, but the council shot it down late last year.

De Blasio’s team then crafted a more limited deal for a far smaller area. The new office tower and the Grand Central improvements are the heart of this plan.

But if the city can’t get even Rezoning Light through, what hope is there for the broader area?

Back when he was preparing to run for mayor, de Blasio recognized his agenda will languish if he can’t get things done.

“The things I value as a progressive — good jobs and affordable housing — cannot happen if projects stall or never materialize,” he said. He was right then.

He still is. And that’s what worries us.