New York City’s first-ever multifamily geothermal building is one step closer to welcoming tenants to Coney Island.  Real estate and development firm LOCR announced on Tuesday they had built the top floor of the 471,000-square foot, 463-unit residential building at 1515 Surf Ave. LOCR partnered with Ecosave USA to design and install the geothermal system, which Ecosave USA says will reduce the building’s carbon emissions by over 60%. he project was funded in part by a grant from the state’s Community Heat Pump System Pilot Program. “1515 Surf proved that high rise buildings can be built a ..read more

New York City developers are working on plans to turn a parcel of land under the University Heights Bridge into a public space.  During Bronx Community Board 7’s executive committee meeting last Thursday night, officials from Dynamic Star — a real estate development, investment and marketing firm — presented their plans for a project they’re calling Fordham South, which would turn a privately owned 160,000-square-foot lot south of the University Heights Bridge into a two-level mixed-use residential and community open space. Along the Harlem River, the project would connect to the expressw ..read more

amNewYork Metro sat down with Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine on May 19 to catch up on several topics: his proposal for the future of the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, congestion pricing, and the migrant crisis and its intersection with education in New York City. amNewYork Metro: I think it’d be great to start off with your proposal for MSG. What’s the latest on that front? Levine: Penn Station, the busiest rail hub in North America, is cramped and rundown and really soulless. There’s been plans proposed for decades about how to turn it once again into the grand tr ..read more

A three-tower mixed-use affordable housing project bringing 970 units to the Bronx River waterfront received overwhelming support from Community Board 9 on Thursday. But the proposal, slated for 1460-1480 Sheridan Blvd. in the Claremont neighborhood, didn’t come without pushback from residents and environmental groups, who expressed concerns over the affordability of the units and the impact on nearby Starlight Park and the accompanying waterfront. Simone Development, who has owned the 1460-1480 Sheridan Blvd. site — formerly an auto shop — for nearly four decades, touts the project as 100% af ..read more

A six-acre public art installation featuring 17,000 fiber-optic “flowers” will be installed on the East River waterfront in Midtown Manhattan later this year. The “Field of Light” installation is planned to be incorporated into Freedom Plaza, a proposed mixed-use project including a casino, a hotel, two residential towers, and a human rights museum, according to Michael Hershman, CEO of the Soloviev Group, in a statement to amNewYork Metro. The Field of Light, created by English-Australian artist Bruce Munro, will open to the public in October, according to Hershman. The installation is meant ..read more

A remarkable section of Linden Street has been designated Bushwick’s first historic district by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission following a unanimous vote by commissioners at a May 9 meeting. The landmarked area includes a “remarkably intact group of 32 brick and brownstone row houses built between 1885 and 1901,” as the agency put it, on the block between Broadway and Bushwick Avenue. “Designed by Brooklyn architects, these distinctive row houses represent the highly successful integration of late 19th century picturesque styles: the Queen Anne, the Neo-Grec, and the Romanesque a ..read more

StreetEasy released a new report revealing a disturbing data point: the typical white household could afford five times as many market-rate rentals in New York City compared to the typical Black household and seven times as many as a Hispanic household. This new report, combined with data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), confirms a disparity in income and the effects of rising rents have not equally impacted races and ethnicities. “New Yorkers earning the median white household income ($93,919) can afford 64% of the city’s rental inventory, a decline from 75% in 2019 ..read more

The recently established New York City Housing Authority “Preservation Trust,” designed to unlock billions of dollars in sorely needed federal funds to fix up the city’s dilapidated public housing stock, is taking shape, as Mayor Eric Adams appointed six individuals Friday to a nine-member panel that will lead the entity. The trust is a city-owned public benefit corporation, set up through state legislation signed into law last year, with the power to borrow money by issuing bonds. Proponents of the trust say it allows for a significant new funding stream to make much-needed repairs across NYC ..read more

The Rent Guidelines Board approved a range of increases for the city’s 1 million stabilized tenants that could see leases spike up to 7%, against the backdrop of a raucous meeting where protesters and elected officials stormed the stage and relentlessly booed the proceedings. By a 5-4 vote, the board approved a preliminary range of increases of 2-5% for one-year leases and 4-7% for two-year leases. The Board will vote on the final percentage increase on June 21, but increases historically fall within the preliminary range. The affirmative votes included all the “public” members of the board pl ..read more

The New York Racing Association (NYRA) announced on Monday, May 1, that it secured approval to utilize a $455 million loan to build the long-awaited, new thoroughbred racing facilities at Belmont Park. The deal was part of the massive $229 billion budget agreement reached Sunday between Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature that was finalized and released to the public. With state approval secured, NYRA will embark on the most significant racetrack construction project in modern memory, all at no cost to taxpayers. The centerpiece of the re-imagined Belmont Park will be a new building th ..read more