Far West Side Development Is Announced
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Developers of a 1.5 million-squarefoot residential and retail complex, one of the first major projects in the recently rezoned Far West Midtown area, will start selling condominiums in January, with the first apartments ready by the end of next year.
The Moinian Group, a New York-based developer, and MacFarlane Partners, a real estate investment firm headquartered in San Francisco, are constructing the complex between 42nd and 43rd streets, west of 11th Avenue.
The block is not technically in the Hudson Yards area, but it was rezoned around the same time. The zoning changes, approved by the City Council about a year ago, allow for denser residential and commercial development in an area that has been left behind by New York’s real estate boom.
“Right now there’s a Verizon phone facility and a Mobil gas station, and not a whole lot else,” a managing principal with MacFarlane, Chuck Berman, said. “I think adding more people, great architecture, and retail space will anchor that part of the neighborhood and provide more reasons for people to live on that western corridor of Manhattan.”
A sales agent with City Connections, Corey Wecler, said the Moinian/Mac-Farlane complex will “test the waters” for future developers looking at Far West Midtown. “I’m sure the building will sell out just fine, and other developers will follow,” Mr. Wecler said. “The Far West is one of the last places left for prime development, especially with the changes in zoning.”
The first phase of the project, scheduled for completion in late 2006, is a 500,000-square-foot, 46-story residential tower called Atelier. The second part of the development, which won’t be completed until 2009, is a mixed-use complex. Ultimately, the project will include more than 800 condominiums and 350 rental units, along with retail and parking space.
“The city’s plan is to stretch this kind of development down to 30th Street,” the founder of a real estate data aggregation Web site, Property Shark, Matthew Haines, said. “I think you’re going to see a row of these humongous buildings. Imagine a giant curtain of Trump-sized buildings from 30th to 42nd.”
