New Yorkers have always been real-estate obsessed, and as housing price records are broken on what seems like a weekly basis, the conventional wisdom is that everyone should get in while they still cannit’s not a bubble, it’s New York City. There is logic to the sentiment, of course: While the space is finite, the demand doesn’t appear to be.

There are plenty of more concrete and measurable reasons, too, for such widespread interest in the real estate market, from still-reasonable interest rates to a noticeably development-friendly climate. The Bloomberg Administration has been more proactive about rezoning neighborhoods in all five boroughs than any in recent memory: West Chelsea, the Hudson Yards, Downtown Brooklyn, and the Williamsburg/Greenpoint waterfront will all become significantly denser over the next decade.

The development process has also become more transparent. According to Laura Wolf-Powers, urban planning chair at the Pratt Institute (and a regular contributor to AN), there are also some institutional reasons. New York is seen as development friendly right now,, she said, explaining that beyond the highly publicized rezoning initiative the Department of City Planning has championed along the Williamsburg waterfront and scuffle over the future of the Hudson Yards, quieter changes have taken place that make it easier for newcomers to get into development.

>Under the Bloomberg Administration, the Department of Buildings has basically moved fromm the 19th to the 21st century, so it is much easier to pull permits. There is a new website [www.nyc.gov/html/dob] where all that information is accessible. It used to seem like an insider’s game, in which you had to know somebody, or pay expediters, but that has changed..

All of these forcessboth large and small, based on economics or just gut instinct and crossed fingerssare adding up to what looks like a new environment for development in New York. Here’s a look at some of the new buildings that are reshaping neighborhoods all over the city.

Manhattan
Between 14th Street and 59th Street

Manhattan
Above 59th Street

Manhattan
Between 14th Street and Canal Street

Manhattan
Below Canal Street

Brooklyn
Downtown

Brooklyn
Williamsburg

Brooklyn
Dumbo

Queens

Researched and written by Alan G. Brake, Deborah Grossberg, Anne Guiney, Gunnar Hand, Jaffer Kolb, and Jenny Wong.

Also in this issue:

Developmentally Challenged

Architects Turned Developers

Practically Ready

While looking at the scores of new projects now sprouting up across the city, we encountered several recurring patterns and debates. Green buildings grow ever more common, and conversions seem to be everywhere. The booming development market is drawing in more first-time developers. Meanwhile, public financing and eminent domain have New Yorkers divided. What follows is a closer look at these issues:

Sustainable

When the Battery Park City Authority commissioned Fox & Fowle Architects to develop sustainability guidelines for its residential developments in 1999, it was an important step for green architecture in New York City. The standards called for everything from increasing the amount of natural light penetrating each floor plate to installing energy-efficient appliances. With three new green buildings set to open in Battery Park City and more in midtown, sustainable highrises are starting to become a pleasant commonplace. Though the definition of what it actually means to build sustainably is evolving, several developers, like the Durst and Albanese companies, have committed fully to the idea. Many others are sure to follow.

NEW Developers

The phones in New York architecture firms seem to be ringing constantly these days, and it is often developers on the other end of the line. But it isn’t always Durst, Vornado, Related, or another of the large and well-established companies that have long been at the top of the city’s real estate heap. According to Nancy Kleppell, an independent marketing and business development consultant who trained as an architect, one prominent firm she works for has been inundated with requests that they join in development projects. Over the last few months, the number of people calling us to work with them has risen to three or four a week,, said Kleppell, but the strange thing is, when we ask if they have done any development before, the majority respond that it is their first project..

Inexperience may have some advantages, though, at least for younger architecture firms who’ve never built projects from the ground-up before. Developers new to the game seem more willing to take a chance on architects unproven at larger scales, like nArchitects, ROY, and Sanders Becker.

Liberty Bonds

In 2002, the federal government allocated $8 billion to create the Liberty Bond program, which allowed developers to purchase tax-free bonds to finance commercial and residential projects in order to aid in the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan. The legislation established a Liberty Zoneeareas south of Canal Street, south of East Broadway to the east of Canal, and south of Grand to the east of East Broadwayyas the primary target for the money. Projects throughout the city were also eligible, though the criteria were stiffer.

Like so much of the rebuilding effort, Liberty Bonds and their use have been controversial. Housing advocates wanted a higher percentage of affordable housing; the legislation called for 5 percent. Also, a proposal to create a rail link between downtown Manhattan and JFK airport using the bonds was denied funding by the State Legislature, which controlled half of the funds.

As of last January, when the authorizing legislation expired, just over half of the $8 billion total had been allocated. Projects that have been approved for the bonds include a hotel ($38.9 million to 377 Greenwich LLC), Historic Front Street ($47 million to Yarrow LLC), the InterActiveCorp building ($80 million to IAC/The Greenwich Group), Tribeca Green ($108 million to the Related Companies), One Bryant Park ($650 million to the Durst Organization), and the Verdesian ($110 million to the Albanese Organization).

Conversions

The triumph of the idea of loft livingg is so complete that brand new loft-style apartment buildingssunsullied by the ghosts of grommeters, die-stampers, and the likeeare springing up in places where no factories ever rose. In New York City, the birthplace of the converted loft, we’ve moved on from industrial buildings to old banks and insurance company headquarters. The real estate monthly The Real Deal reported that building owners are getting 30 percent more for buildings sold as residential instead of commercial, regardless of their origins. As housing prices climb skyward, any building with a narrow enough floor plate to allow light to penetrate to the center is fair game for condo-ization. Conversions of well-known commercial buildings like the 1909 Metropolitan Life building on Madison Square Park East, the 1875 Williamsburg Savings Bank in downtown Brooklyn, and Cass Gilbert’s 1913 Woolworth Building opposite City Hall Park have grabbed the headlines, but they’re joined by humbler office towers across the city. While we’re not likely to see Bank Stylee or File Cabinet Luxee touted in marketing brochures, office living is here to stay.

Eminent Domain

New York State’s most famous wielder of the eminent domain law was undoubtedly Robert Moses who, over the course of his five-decade career, reshaped our understanding of the public goodd?the clause governing the limits of proper eminent domain useeas much as he did the city. The intervening decades have not been kind to Moses’ legacy, however. Perhaps as a direct response to his method of wholesale bull-dozing, the taking of private lands for the public good is typically used as a last resort, and almost always creates a controversy. Though the June Kelo v. New London Supreme Court decision has brought the debate back into the headlines, it won’t actually change New York State law, which has long recognized economic development as an acceptable cause for eminent domain seizures. In the city, the most prominent project that may need governmental assistance in the form of eminent domain is the Atlantic Yards project, the 21-acre mixed-use development in Downtown Brooklyn developed by Forest City Ratner Company. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the City Council are on record as supporters of the project.

Congress may soon complicate things for those who would hope to make use of eminent domain, though. On June 30, the House of Representatives passed a bill that denies federal funding from the departments of transportation, treasury, and housing and urban development to any city or state proposal that uses eminent domain to require that people sell their then-occupied property. The Senate is expected to follow suit shortly.