NYCHA ramps up air rights sales to developers

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NYCHA looks to ramp up air rights sales

In late 2018, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) unveiled plans to rake in $1 billion by selling unused air rights as part of a package of strategies to help revitalize the authority’s dilapidated buildings. Now, more than a year later, the public housing authority has released a revised, citywide Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) seeking those who want to purchased unused development rights for high-rise projects.

Under the Transfer to Preserve program, would-be air rights buyers must propose “as of right” plans—development speak for allowed under the existing zoning—to transfer those rights to neighboring privately-owned parcels. In exchange, proceeds from the sale support sorely-needed renovations of NYCHA buildings. The authority typically reviews these proposals on an ad hoc basis, but with the revised RFEI, a new “citywide clearing house” will allow NYCHA to review more proposals more quickly, says the housing agency.

NYCHA finalized an agreement earlier this month to sell 9,000 square feet of development and parking rights at Hobbs Court—a 259-unit affordable housing development on NYCHA-owned land in East Harlem—in exchange for $2.6 million. A handful of similar deals are in the work at other NYCHA properties across the city, according to the agency.

And in other news...

• As the city’s novel coronavirus cases continue to rise (46 as of this morning), a number of high-profile gatherings have been canceled. The latest collateral damage includes the New York City Half Marathon, New York International Auto Show at the Javits Center, and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson’s State of the City Address. Meanwhile, Broadway has continued to raise its curtain despite the outbreak.
• Nursing home preparations are also ramping up.
• The outbreak has made for some eerily empty subway commutes as the MTA doubles down on subway cleaning. Mayor Bill de Blasio has advised straphangers to avoid traveling on crowded trains, but the city’s homeless continue to seek shelter in the system.
• Now that city and transit officials want people to stay off the subway, a growing chorus of activists and cyclists are urging the MTA to discontinue its ban on bike riding over its bridges
• The virus, at least for now, has also killed the real estate world’s “handshake deal.”
• Many a real estate luncheon, parties, and other networking gatherings have been canceled in the wake of novel coronavirus concerns.
• In the little non-coronavirus related news, an anonymous buyer has closed on a $51.4 million condo at 220 Central Park South, which dominated 2019’s priciest sales.