Wednesday, 2 November 2016
MTA blames subway delays on overcrowded trains
The agency knows what it'll take to deal with overcrowding but it will take time and money to fully address
Delays have almost become synonymous with the MTA subway and it’ll be a while before things get any better. According to DNAinfo, MTA’s recent data shows that weekday subway delays were up 21 percent in August compared to the same period last year. This isn’t the most shocking news, however understanding the causes behind overcrowding may (or may not) put things into perspective.
Communication-Based Train Control, or CBTC is a modern signaling system that allows for improved train control, more reliable service, and shorter gaps between trains. It’s also something that the MTA does not yet have. The MTA is currently working on installing the system but it is costly and "an incredibly long-range thing," said Jon Orcutt of public transportation advocacy group, the Transit Center.
The process is so long-range that the MTA has been working on getting the CBTC installed for the last 20 years. The L train happens to be the only line that fully utilizes the state-of-the-art system because the line doesn’t switch between multiple tracks as most others do. According to MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz, the system is being installed on the 7 line, Eighth Avenue line, Brooklyn F line, and the Queens Boulevard line.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has plans to incorporate open gangway cars, which are wider and allow for about 10 percent more passengers, into the city’s transit system, but that too will take awhile. The MTA is hoping to purchase roughly 750 "open-end" subway cars that are longer and have wider doors, allowing the train to spend about 32 percent less time in the station as passengers enter and exit more efficiently.
These changes are a work in progress, and there’s no mention of an official timeline as to when all of this will be fully implemented. Until then, each subway ride will continue to be a gamble with luck.
from
http://ny.curbed.com/2016/11/2/13503060/mta-subway-delays-overcrowding
Sunny Hudson Heights co-op with family-friendly vibe seeks $649,000
The cheery abode offers two big bedrooms, six closets, and plenty of light
Welcome back to The Six Digit Club, in which we take a look at a newish-to-market listing priced under $1 million, because nice things sometimes come in small packages. Send nominations to the tipline.
The listing for this Hudson Heights co-op is a little scant on the details, but the pictures of the bright and airy two-bedroom largely speak for themselves. Asking a relatively reasonable $649,000, the apartment offers sunny south, east, and west exposures; a large open living space that blends into a serviceable dining area; and hardwood floors throughout. Even better, the place has both a full bath and, per the listing, a "tastefully updated powder room" that goes unpictured.
The master bedroom is especially spacious, though the second bedroom is nothing to sneeze at either. While the kitchen is rather narrow, it looks to be well-equipped. Also worth noting: the place has six—yes, six—separate closets.
The building itself offers plenty of amenities, including a part-time attended lobby, a fitness center, a playground, a garage, a package room, and "landscaped gardens for residents to enjoy year round." Maintenance comes in at $992 a month. Sadly, dogs are not allowed. In brighter news, cats are welcome.
- Listing: 66 Overlook Terrace #6C [Halstead via StreetEasy]
- The Six-Digit Club archives [Curbed]
from
http://ny.curbed.com/2016/11/2/13498466/hudson-heights-coop-for-sale-nyc
St. John's Terminal redevelopment may be postponed, developers say
The proposed redevelopment could be put off until the luxury market improves; this would adversely affect Pier 40’s plans for repairs
Following last month’s altered plans for the St. John’s Terminal redevelopment project, across from Pier 40, developers of the proposed project are anticipating delays that will affect the pier’s ability to make much-needed repairs, reports DNAinfo.
Developers Westbrook Partners and the Atlas Capital Group nixed plans to incorporate "big box" retail and an elevated park into their project after both the City Planning Commission and West Village residents expressed concerns. After submitting the modifications to City Council developers are anticipating a delay on the center portion of the St. John’s Terminal site, where five buildings with both market-rate and affordable housing is expected to be built. But, according to DNAinfo, developers are also hesitant to construct the luxury residential units amidst the current market decline and are considering postponing the project.
So how does this affect Pier 40? The Hudson River Park Trust, which manages the pier, had reached an agreement with Westbrook Partners and Atlas Capital Group to transfer 200,000 square feet of air rights from Pier 40 to the development project for $100 million. The money generated from the sale was to be used to repair the pier’s 3,500 deteriorating piles. The HRPT is now concerned that it won’t get the desperately needed funds after all.
"It’s frustrating for me that all of a sudden, something new is introduced into the picture," stated Councilman Corey Johnson at a City Council subcommittee public hearing on zoning and the air rights deal.
City Council will not vote on the rezoning that was being considered for the project until developers are certain which direction they plan on heading towards.
from
http://ny.curbed.com/2016/11/2/13501764/st-johns-terminal-redevelopment-postponed
Inside the sales office of Robert A.M. Stern’s overtly exclusive 70 Vestry Street
Projects designed by Robert A.M. Stern are generally shrouded in mystery right up until they near completion.That's basically been the case with his condo now rising on Tribeca's waterfront. However as construction got underway this year, some tidbits of information have emerged on the highly-anticipated development.
Curbed recently got a chance to tour the sales gallery for 70 Vestry, as the future condo will be known, and we've come away with several new details on the 14-story structure that's being developed by Related Companies.
The sales gallery for the condo is located just a couple of blocks away from the construction site, and it's evident that the space is fitted with many of the same materials that will be used at 70 Vestry—Stern's signature limestone facade, raw oak, and a miniature version of a glass sculpture created by artist Alyson Shotz that will sit in the building's lobby once it's complete.
Just beyond the sales gallery's lobby is a model of the building where sales agents get a chance to light up specific areas within the model that represent the apartments, outdoor spaces, and amenities. Curbed's tour was led by Kristina Wallison and Robert McCain from Related Sales. While the model may be an informative tool for prospective buyers, what's truly attention-grabbing is a video shown in a room beyond the model. Related hasn't made the video publicly available, and it can only be viewed by prospective buyers visiting the sales office.
In it, Stephen Ross, the chairman of Related Companies, Stern, and Daniel Romualdez, the interior designer, all describe their vision in regards to 70 Vestry.
"I like to think of myself as a modern traditionalist, so one can go back to go forward," Stern says in the video. "We picked a French limestone [for the exterior] which has a kind of pink glow which will be particularly fabulous as the sun sets over the Hudson and brings in a warm orange-y color all year round so this building will really glow in its setting."
"The video is invaluable at sort of summarizing and pulling altogether everything the building is offering," McCain, one of the brokers, explained to Curbed.
The sales office isn't set up to mimic any one particular apartment at 70 Vestry, but it does give you a sense of what the living and dining room, the kitchen, and the master bathroom in an apartment will look like (a bedroom hasn't been set up in the space).
The building's 46 apartments will range in size from 1,700-square-feet to 7,000-square-feet with two- to seven-bedroom apartments on offer. Floors three through seven, which are being referred to as the base of the building, will contain six apartments per floor, with setbacks beginning on floor eight. Three apartments will be on floors eight through 11, with floor 12 hosting two apartments, and the top two floors being home to the building's two duplex penthouses. Rumor has it that those penthouses will ask $50 million and $65 million respectively.
The penthouses will come with 10- to-12-foot ceilings, multiple private terraces, private elevator and stairwell access, and a formal dining room. And those are only the swanky features we know of so far. Several other apartments in the building will have setback terraces, fireplaces made with driftwood marble, windowed eat-in kitchens, and library/media rooms. Romualdez has designed the condos to have features like Bardiglio Imperial marble countertops with Calcatta Milano marble accents—a mouthful, to be sure—in the kitchen, and a custom designed horizontal fluted glass shower/toilet compartment door that's fitted with a brushed nickel frame.
70 Vestry saw a soft launch in April this year, and of the apartments currently available prices range from $7.25 million for a three-bedroom spanning 2,446 square feet to $29.5 million for a five-bedroom condo spread out over 4,647 square feet.
The development was most recently in the news when it was revealed that Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady were in the process of purchasing a five-bedroom apartment with an ask upwards of $20 million. In the midst of news surrounding a slowdown in the luxury market, celebrity buyers may have come as a welcome relief for the developer, but the brokers on the project told Curbed that sales have been moving steadily since the condos went on the market earlier this year. Related is anticipating a total sellout of $700 million at the building.
70 Vestry is located less than a 20-minute walk from another high-profile Robert A.M. Stern-designed building, 30 Park Place. That building however rises upwards of 900 feet, and has a Four Seasons hotel on the lower levels. But the biggest factors that set 70 Vestry apart, according to the sales team, are the fact that it sits on the waterfront—it is, we're told, on the last undeveloped waterfront site in Tribeca—and that while it might seem like a small development based on the apartments, it has a set of amenities and features that rival the city's biggest projects.
Just some of those jaw-dropping amenities spread out over 12,000 square feet include a lounge and dining suite for private functions, a children's playroom, a fitness center by the Wright Fit that spans 8,000 square feet, a half Olympic swimming pool, and landscape work by Zion Breen & Richardson Associates, which includes a large water feature on the eastern wall of the building's much-hyped motor court.
"70 Vestry to me is so special because it is only 46 homes but yet it is on a grand scale," Wallison, the other broker on the tour, said. "It is very unusual to have this level of design and amenities in a building that's really more of a boutique size."
Construction on the condo is expected to wrap up sometime in 2018.
from
http://ny.curbed.com/2016/11/2/13497484/70-vestry-tom-gisele-robert-stern-sales-gallery-photos-tribeca
Park Slope’s Key Food redevelopment gets more community-friendly
The grocery store promised by the developer has doubled in size
Revised plans for the redevelopment of Park Slope’s Key Food site include a larger supermarket and affordable apartments for lower-income New Yorkers. Area residents will also be given a say in what kind of supermarket will return to the space; an agreement that’s meant to ease concerns that the redevelopment will usher in a market unaffordable to the residents who rely on the existing Key Foods, DNAinfo reports.
The revised plan was presented by community stakeholders at last night’s Park Slope community board meeting. The finessed proposal, first teased in an endorsement by City Councilmember Brad Lander, addresses the community’s concerns about affordability—both of the incoming apartments and its retail.
While the development will take the same shape Avery Hall first proposed—two towers with 165 apartments between them—the adjoining grocery store has been enlarged from a proposed 7,500 square feet to 22,000 square feet. The negotiations also include the promise of a 20-year lease over the original 15-year lease.
Concerns over the affordability of the below market-rate apartments in the development were also addressed in the finessed proposal. While the number of affordable apartments will remain the same at 41, the affordability guidelines have been adjusted to include more income brackets. The original plan included eight apartments for moderate-income families, and 32 for low-income families; the revised plan will include 16 apartments for very low-income families, 16 for low-income families, and eight for moderate-income families.
Avery Hall will issue a Request For Proposals for a grocer at the site, and will stipulate that the store must remain “community-oriented” by carrying a range of products, including ethnic products, at a variety of price points.
- New Key Food Plan Includes Bigger Supermarket, Cheaper Apartments [DNAinfo]
- Plan to redevelop Park Slope Key Food site refined with community input [Curbed]
- Park Slope Residents Unhappy With Proposal For Key Food Site [Curbed]
from
http://ny.curbed.com/2016/11/2/13500130/park-slope-key-food-redevelopment-plan-changes