Blasio demand a too-tall order
Low-cost-housing quota ‘killed tower’
Mayor de Blasio’s demand for affordable housing may have killed World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein’s proposal to build the city’s tallest apartment building, a report says.
Silverstein, developer of the 1,776foottall One World Trade Center, has abandoned plans for a 106story residential skyscraper on Manhattan’s West Side and is now offering the site for sale.
The move came after Silverstein and the de Blasio administration clashed over the amount of affordablehousing space the project needed to provide in exchange for city approval, Crain’s New York Business reported this week.
Silverstein wanted to set aside 250,000 square feet of the planned 1.8millionsquarefoot development for belowmarketrate apartments, while the city insisted on 375,000 square feet, Crain’s reported.
The city was able to dictate terms because the site — along 11th Avenue, between West 40th and West 41st streets — is zoned mainly for commercial use, and Silverstein needed special permission to build mostly residences, according to Crain’s.
A Silverstein spokesman wouldn’t say what role the affordablehousing dispute played in the company’s decision to shelve its plans.
Silverstein’s decision to quit the site — part of the massive Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project — could “dampen enthusiasm” by other developers to embrace affordablehousing quotas as a condition for building huge apartment towers, according to Crain’s.
The Silverstein property is several blocks north of the 28acre site where the Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group are developing more than 17 million square feet of residential and commercial space over the MTA’s West Side Yard.
Silverstein Properties — which hired CBRE to market its property, formerly the home of a MercedesBenz dealership — is poised to make a killing on the land, Crain’s reported.
Silverstein bought the site this year for around $100 million and believes it could now be worth as much as $500 million.
De Blasio spokesman Wiley Norvell called Silverstein’s former building plan “a very complex project” and said, “It’s not clear that affordable housing is actually the sticking point.”
“But certainly, this project would be held to the same mandatory affordable housing requirement as every citybacked or private rezoning,” Norvell added.
A CBRE spokesman didn’t return a request for comment.