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Proposed LIC tower 4 times bigger than it should be

A Manhattan developer plans to erect a 70-story apartment tower in Long Island City, Queens, that is four times bigger than what the site was zoned for, according to public documents reviewed by Crain’s.

Property Markets Group has proposed to build a 930-unit residential building along 41st Avenue, near the corner of Bridge Plaza North, that will clock in at 830,000 square feet, The Real Deal reported Wednesday.

But according to city records, the site at 29-37 41st Ave. was zoned for something closer to a 200,000-square-foot building.
Property Markets Group declined to comment.

There are several ways to legally bump the square footage on a given site beyond the initial zoning limits, though it was unclear exactly which one the firm used to beef up the size of the proposed tower to such a scale.
Property Markets Group already owns an adjacent site, which is home to the Clock Tower building. But even if that property were combined with the site of the proposed tower, there would still not be enough square footage to build 70 stories tall.

To do so, Property Markets Group could have acquired unused development rights from an adjacent site controlled by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

That parcel of land borders Property Markets Group's parcel to the northeast, and is being used in conjunction with the MTA's East Side Access project. The plot likely holds more than 1 million square feet of unused development rights, according to a Crain’s estimate, and could be the source of the project's extra height.

The MTA declined to comment.

Developers buy unused rights from neighbors all over the city to increase the size of projects. For example, Extell Development spent years buying additional air rights on a midtown block to construct One57, which was much larger than what the property's original zoning would have allowed. In fact, the de Blasio administration is mulling a way to let landmarked building owners sell their air rights beyond what is currently permitted.

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http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...n-it-should-be