New York City is awash in development, with skyscrapers rising above the cityscape seemingly at random, especially in neighborhoods in Manhattan.
“New York is one big construction site right now, every corner, every lot,” said Richard Nassimi, the president of Nassimi Group Real Estate, a residential brokerage. Each month, Mr. Nassimi takes a helicopter tour around Manhattan to check out the action, either alone or with developer clients. “Wherever you look, West Side, East Side, something new is coming in.”
After the recession took hold in 2008, new construction came to a virtual halt, leaving two residential towers to grab most of the attention, namely One57 on West 57th Street and 432 Park Avenue. But New Yorkers are about to witness a high-rise residential building boom, thanks in no small part to decades of planning.
Three well-established developers who chose to bide their time after the crash of the housing market have projects underway — 50 West Street and 30 Park Place, both near the lower tip of Manhattan, and 252 East 57th Street in Midtown — that will bring to fruition ideas that have been years in the making.
Other big towers planned in the city include the Extell Development Company’s 1,423-foot tower at 225 West 57th Street; Vornado Realty Trust’s 950-foot tower at 220 Central Park South; the JDS Development Group and the Property Markets Group’s 1,350-foot tower at 111 West 57th Street; Ian Bruce Eichner’s Continuum Company’s 775-foot tower at 45 East 22nd Street; and Zeckendorf Realty’s 43-story tower at 50 United Nations Plaza and 51-story tower at 520 Park Avenue.
The activity doesn’t surprise John Mollenkopf, the director of the Center for Urban Research at the Graduate Center at City University of New York. “People who watch the cycles of development in New York City know they can take a long time,” said Mr. Mollenkopf, a director in the Department of City Planning in the 1980s.
Mayors change, disputes arise and recessions hit, slowing down these cycles, he added, but “if you live long enough, you will probably see a few of them.”
