33-Story Tower Coming To Hell's Kitchen, Renderings Show

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — A developer submitted new renderings of a proposed high-rise tower on West 43rd Street last week as part of an environmental review required by the city, records show.

The 33-story, 399-foot-tall building at 314 West 43rd St. would be mixed-use, consisting of both housing and retail.

The site, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, is currently home to the 15-story Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Center, a 13-story office building and a parking lot, all of which would be demolished to make way for the new tower.

The environmental assessment statement, submitted Jan. 29, found that the new construction would not have any potentially significant adverse impacts on the surrounding area. (The document was first reported by New York YIMBY.)

The tower would need to be granted a special zoning permit to be built, since it falls within the Special Clinton District — a city-designated area between 41st and 59th streets where new development is more heavily regulated.

The study found that the new construction would have no negative impact on the nearby McGraw-Hill Building, a designated landmark. It notes, however, that the Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Center, which faces demolition, is home to a mosaic mural by the WPA artist Anton Refregier and has been deemed eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

"There are minimal impediments to as-of-right demolition of the Martin Luther King Jr. Union Building (and the historical mosaic mural) because the building is not listed" as a historic place, the city planning department wrote.

Once the proposal moves through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), developers aim to start construction this year and wrap up by 2024.