The MTA is taking presents for greater than 300,000 sq. ft of improvement rights in Decrease Manhattan.
The company launched a request for proposals Friday, searching for a purchaser of as much as 350,000 sq. ft of landmarked air rights tied to the Fulton Middle.
The transit heart shares a zoning lot with the Corbin Constructing, a terra cotta-clad workplace constructing inbuilt 1889, which was landmarked in 2015. Collectively, the 2 buildings are underbuilt on the lot by 358,000 sq. ft, of which the company is holding 8,000 for “future flexibility,” in accordance with the RFP.
The potential pool of patrons will likely be restricted to those that can purchase the rights by means of a Metropolis Planning Fee certification or by means of a zoning lot merger with an adjoining website. The RFP specifies that it’ll not settle for presents from patrons whose plans would require a particular allow or different land-use approval.
Extra potential patrons, nevertheless, are eligible because of the Metropolis of Sure for Housing Alternative. The textual content modification eased the foundations round the place landmarked air rights could be transferred and freed many of those offers from the particular allow course of. Due to these adjustments, the sq. footage could be utilized to websites throughout the road and inside the identical block of the Fulton Middle, with out triggering the necessity for a particular allow, so long as such a deal doesn’t improve the allowable sq. footage of the receiving website by greater than 30 %.
Transfers leading to bigger initiatives nonetheless require a particular allow and, subsequently, should undergo town’s land-use evaluate course of.
Air rights transfers have been on the rise for the reason that passage of Metropolis of Sure. The Actual Deal beforehand reported that landmarked improvement rights have been buying and selling for between $180 and 400 per sq. foot.
Bidders on the Fulton air rights should supply no less than truthful market worth (as decided by the MTA’s impartial appraiser) to be thought-about. The RFP is due March 16, 2026.
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