What’s old is new, as Mayor Eric Adams is looking at rezoning barely used manufacturing centers in the Garment District and Chelsea for residential use to help ease the Big Apple’s housing crisis.
The focus is primarily on turning empty older buildings into apartments across more than 40 blocks, which could result in as many as 20,000 new homes, but Hizzoner warned that the city would need a sign-off from the state.
“I’ve said it before: New York City is the ‘City of Yes’ — and today, we are saying yes to a flourishing economy, yes to thriving business districts, and yes to creating more homes for New Yorkers,” said Adams on Thursday.
The most dramatic of the proposals calls for a re-examination of the old manufacturing districts in Midtown’s southern quadrant, which stretch roughly from West 23rd Street to West 40th Street between Fifth and Eighth avenues.
The goal, officials argue, is to reinvigorate a portion of Manhattan hit hard by shop closures and commuters shifting to work-from-home schedules following the coronavirus pandemic by adding housing — and thus residents — to the area.
City Hall says it will hold a series of forums in the neighborhood beginning this fall to hammer out the details, including how many homes can fit in the area.
The proposed changes were endorsed by two key figures in any rezoning, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and the local councilman, Erik Bottcher (D-Manhattan), whose thumbs-up is essential for approval from the full council.
“[T]he idea of 100 percent commercial districts is an antiquated notion. We should strive for live-work neighborhoods that are alive with activity both day and night and provide both housing, commercial, and industrial uses,” said Bottcher in a statement.
Levine’s office issued a report earlier this year that called for overhauling the manufacturing districts in Midtown South.
It projected that the zoning changes and building conversions would result in 3,200 new apartments over the next decade — and potentially 6,700 apartments over 25 years.
That’s roughly as many new units as were built as part of the nearby Hudson Yards complex.
The changes to the city’s office conversion regulations would allow commercial buildings built before 1990 to qualify, expanding the current cutoffs, which are usually 1961 or 1977, depending on their location.
City Hall also rolled out a new office dedicated to helping landlords work through the paperwork needed to convert their buildings — all in hopes of netting potentially 20,000 new apartments citywide over the next decade through the effort.
However, officials say that getting those apartments depends on Albany lawmakers creating a new property tax abatement program like the one used to finance the conversions of office buildings in the Financial District in the 1990s.
They also say they need a change to the state’s building size caps, which impose stricter limits on residential buildings than office towers.
“We are ready to deliver smart zoning changes that will throw a lifeline to underused office buildings and create much-needed housing in the process,” added the commissioner of city planning, Dan Garodnick.