New York City Council Passes Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan

The New York City Council voted to adopt Mayor Eric Adams’s Midtown South mixed-use plan on Thursday following committee approvals the previous week.

The council voted unanimously in favor of the rezoning, which has the potential to create 9,700 new apartments across 42 blocks through ground-up development and office-to-residential conversions in an area where housing isn’t currently granted.

The housing is expected to be produced through an increase in the allowable floor area ratio (FAR) — a calculation of the amount of floor space that can be built vertically in relation to the size of the lot on which a building stands — from 12 FAR to either 15 or 18.

About 2,900 of the 9,700 units must be deemed affordable under the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing laws.

As part of the plan, the Adams administration has committed $340 million for upgrades to parks, subway stations, local hospitals and a new dedicated busway on 34th Street, similar to how 14th Street was redesigned in 2019.

“Believe it or not, before the City Council’s actions today, it has been impossible to build housing in some of the most central neighborhoods in all of New York, and, with a housing crisis this dire, this simply does not make sense,” New York City Planning Commission Chair Dan Garodnick said in a press conference prior to the vote.

Councilmember Keith Powers believes that the precedent set by Thursday’s decision will lead to similar rezonings in commercial districts across Midtown and Manhattan in general, with Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine stating that his office has identified opportunities for up to 70,000 additional units.

In the days leading up to the passage of the rezoning, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated five historic buildings representative of the Garment District’s heritage within the area to protect them from demolition or unfettered conversion.

Landlords will still have the option to convert these buildings by gaining approval on a case-by-case basis from the city agency for adaptive reuse, according to an LPC spokesperson.

They include the Barbey Building at 15 West 38th Street, the Fashion Tower at 135 West 36th Street, the Furcraft Building at 242-246 West 30th Street, the 29th Street Towers at 214 and 224 West 29th Street and the Lefcourt Clothing Center at 275 Seventh Avenue.

The Midtown South plan is another sweeping housing reform Adams has pushed since taking office at the start of 2022. He has retained support for such initiatives despite the alleged corruption scandals that have shaken his administration.

In December, the City Council approved the Adams administration’s City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, which is expected to create 80,000 new housing units over 15 years with a variety of zoning changes.

A month later, Adams increased that estimate from 80,000 to 100,000.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.