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Old Posted Jul 10, 2012, 8:36 PM
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Looks like the short block between the site and Grand Central would become a pedestrian only street under the new zoning...



http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...TATE/307089970

City Hall: Supersize midtown's east side
Massive upzoning effort to encourage bigger towers for aging office district


By Theresa Agovino
July 8, 2012

Quote:

With 14 Fortune 500 headquarters clustered in the office towers on midtown's east side near Grand Central Terminal—the greatest density of such companies in the U.S.—the area looms large in the international business world. But fearing that midtown east's aging building stock will diminish the district's corporate allure, the Bloomberg administration is finalizing a rezoning blueprint that would encourage office teardowns and the construction of even bigger commercial towers with premium amenities. It may also include a proposal said to be favored by Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden: turning Vanderbilt Avenue, the short block west of Grand Central, into a pedestrian-only street.

City officials are set to release details this week of the proposal to upzone the area with 80 million square feet of office space. Sources said officials hadn't determined the size limits on new buildings, although discussions considered expansions ranging from 22% to more than 100% greater than what's now allowed, depending on location and current zoning. The larger sizes would likely be allowed only on midtown avenues and on the streets closest to Grand Central, which sits beneath more than 1 million square feet of unused air rights.

.......sources said the planning department had discussed raising the area's FAR to 18 to 26 from the current 12 to 15.

It's possible that buildings in midtown east could grow even larger than what the city's revised zoning permits. That's because there are 1.35 million square feet of unused air rights above Grand Central that developers could conceivably buy to boost the size of their buildings.

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http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/m...tent=Manhattan

GCT street plaza

By CHUCK BENNETT and HELEN FREUND
July 9, 2012

Quote:

The city is looking at turning tiny Vanderbilt Avenue next to Grand Central Terminal into the next car-free “pedestrian plaza,” under a plan being touted by the Department of City Planning and the Department of Transportation. The five-block stretch, which runs from 42nd to 47th streets, would be transformed under a broader plan to “upzone” office space on Manhattan’s East Side, two sources told The Post.

“The city is examining ways to modernize East Midtown so that over time, it will maintain its stature as a premier business district and job generator for New York City,” a city planning official said.

Mayor Bloomberg wants the whole project under way by the time he leaves office in 2014, and details could be released Wednesday at a Community Board 5 meeting.
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