Hines acquired the land in 2007 and it took until last week to close on the purchase of additional
air rights necessary to build 53W53, a condo designed by Nouvel with interiors by Thierry Despont.
This area, known as the property's
air rights, would be apportioned to the owner by the Ministry of Culture in the form of certificates that represent the dimensions of the unconstructed space.
The city's rezoning proposal has brought 3.5 million s/f of
air rights in play in East Midtown.
Of course, with
air rights typically just transferred to nearby lots, cooperation of the city to allow them to be used further away is what would likely spur the interest of developers.
Shaffan explained that without the
air rights, the property is worth only $4 or $5 million.
Being built 6,000 s/f, the building has 12,500 s/f of additional
air rights before the bonus from the neighboring site; this provides a unique opportunity for an investor.
The building has 12,745 SF of available
air rights, and the M1-4 zoning allows for a total of 25,490 BSF.
* A multi-family building at 174 Delancey Street, a 22-unit property in the Lower East Side that offers two retail stores and over 5,000 s/f of
air rights. The asking price is $7,250,000.
The unused
air rights over the Javits center and Twelfth Avenue combined with those over two adjoining city blocks owned by Javits have the location and the potential to be developed into a complex that could be the unrivaled envy of the world: an architectural gem that would be an extraordinary financial Success.
The building is more than 11,500 s/f with another 16,000 s/f of
air rights.
The park district had given the library land for previous expansions but retained the
air rights above that property.