Is Midtown East Finally Getting More Skyscrapers?

After three years of controversy, the plan for Midtown East's rezoning is finally up for approval.

The city released the Midtown East Rezoning plan Thursday, which proposes upzoning the section of Midtown to increase competition among developers to build taller office towers, Crain's first reported. The proposal concerns the 78-block area from East 39th to East 57th streets south to north, and Second and Third avenues to Fifth Avenue from east to west.

The document proposes increasing the maximum density surrounding Grand Central by 30 percent and allowing landmarked buildings to sell their air rights to anyone in the district. As of now, the law says that landmarked buildings can sell their air rights to only adjacent buildings. The new plan could make way for as many as 16 new developments in the district, the city predicted.

A big goal of the rezoning would be to increase commercial competition for bigger and newer buildings to be built in the district. Midtown has become less of a destination for developers in recent years. Less than 5 percent of midtown buildings have been built within the past two decades, the proposal said.

After Bloomberg's administration proposed the upzoning in 2013, the proposal was withdrawn when it didn't get enough support from the city. Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council member Dan Garodnick put together a second proposal presented in June 2015, which has been rendered by the Department of City Planning for approval.

The city last year rezoned a few blocks west of Grand Central and named it the Vanderbilt Corridor. That's where the 65-story One Vanderbilt is being built after a lawsuit over its air rights was settled in mid-August.

A public meeting will be held to review the proposal, after which an environmental review will be conducted on Sept. 22.

Image rendering by KPF