Foundation Filings for New NYC Apartments Lag 2022 Numbers: REBNY
By Rebecca Baird-Remba March 31, 2023 5:48 pm
reprints
Multifamily construction activity in New York City has inched along at a low ebb since the 421a tax break expired last summer, with foundation filings for new apartment buildings stuck below where they were in the first three months of 2022, according to a new report from the Real Estate Board of New York.
March saw 24 new foundation filings for 792 apartments, up slightly from the 22 filings for 432 apartments in February. January’s numbers were similar to February’s, with 26 foundation filings for 576 apartments. By comparison, the number of fillings for new apartment buildings in January, February and March 2022 totalled 68, 56 and 120, respectively.
Foundation filings help illustrate whether projects are actually moving forward, the real estate trade group said, because developers often file them several months — or more than a year — after new building applications.
Very few large residential projects have filed foundation applications in the last few months, and March marked the fourth month in a row with fewer than five large building filings. Only three buildings with more than 100 apartments filed initial foundation applications in March, totalling 364 units. Those included one mixed-income project and two developments that will likely be condos, the report notes. Tishman Realty filed plans for a 21-story condo tower at 110 East 16th Street last month, on a site that could allow up to 150 units, The Real Deal reported. That would be the first project with more than 100 units to apply for a foundation filing this year, according to REBNY.
So where are these new projects happening? Brooklyn overwhelmingly leads the pack, accounting for 46 percent of all multifamily foundation filings in the last 12 months. Queens accounts for 20 percent of apartment filings, followed by the Bronx at 19 percent, Manhattan at 11 percent, and Staten Island at 3 percent.
While 2023 has been off to a slower start than 2022, REBNY pointed out that last year was a mixed bag for foundation filings, with much larger projects rushing to get shovels in the ground in the first half of the year. The first six months of 2022 saw 440 filings for 31,750 apartments, while the latter half of the year saw 186 filings for 12,005 units.
Update: This article has been updated to correct that Tishman Realty, not Tishman Speyer, filed the plans to 110 East 16th Street.
Rebecca Baird-Remba can be reached at rbairdremba@commercialobserver.com.
