Crain's New York Business

22/07/2025

City building owners are racing to install solar panels before the end of the year as the Trump administration plans to sunset a federal tax program that helps residential property owners pay for panels on their buildings’ rooftops.

The Big Beautiful Bill Act enacted by Congress earlier this month kills a 30% tax credit to help finance solar projects for residential buildings after 2025. It also ends a separate 30% tax credit by 2027 for solar projects built by commercial developers, including landlords who own multi-family housing, businesses, or companies that build solar farms.

Energy and real estate experts say the changes will make it more challenging and costly for properties to go solar, and are a setback for New York’s solar industry. That’s especially bad news for co-op and condo buildings looking to swap out gas-powered systems with solar.

Those buildings, among others, must shrink their carbon emissions to meet the escalating mandates of Local Law 97, a city law that requires most large buildings to reduce their carbon emissions with green technologies.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/climate/solar-rooftops-are-getting-more-expensive-under-trump-bill?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

21/07/2025

A stretch of Fifth Avenue near Grand Central Terminal could be said to be both the city’s spine and heart, especially for retailers: A storefront on the bustling Midtown portion of the famous thoroughfare once seemed a no-lose proposition.

But recent years have roughed up the strip. Vacancies, some long-term, dot several berths, especially around West 43rd Street.

And a new Art Deco-ish high-rise from Rabina Properties at 520 Fifth Ave. has dedicated just a fraction of its space to retail, whether as an acknowledgment that some shoppers now head elsewhere or a bet on a neighborhood reinvention.

Indeed, only about 1% of the 76-story, 380,000-square-foot condo-and-office tower, or 3,500 square feet, will serve as a storefront, and just for a single tenant. Instead, the bulk of the sidewalk-adjacent space, plus floors above and below it, will be for Moss, a 5-story members-only club that has a restaurant, piano lounge and podcast studio among other amenities.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/who-owns-block/rabina-plans-members-only-club-520-fifth-ave-project?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

17/07/2025

City Council recently voted to approve One45, a $600 million roughly 1,000-unit complex in Harlem from developer Bruce Teitelbaum. The body was largely expected to approve the project after it won the support of local Councilman Yusef Salaam in June, but its path forward until then seemed anything but assured.

Getting approval for One45 was a lengthy battle that saw the project become central to the debate over how to address the city’s longstanding concerns over gentrification and affordable housing. Teitelbaum has been attempting to rezone the project site, located at the corner of Lenox Avenue and West 145th Street, since 2021, initially planning to build a pair of 363-foot-tall towers with 915 apartments, 50% of which would have been affordable.

The approved version of One45 will include three buildings and about 338 permanently affordable units, more than 150 of which will be for households earning between 40% and 50% of the area median income, or $64,800 to $81,000 for a family of four.

One building will consist of about 90 affordable housing units for seniors across roughly 8 stories and 50,000 square feet. The other two towers will stand 35 and about 33 stories tall, and the project will span roughly 935,000 square feet overall.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/massive-harlem-development-one45-wins-city-council-approval?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

16/07/2025

The City Council recently voted to reject the land-use changes that the Bally’s Corp. needs for its Bronx casino, a seemingly fatal blow for the $4 billion project.

Lawmakers voted 29-9, with 4 abstentions, in favor of a motion to disapprove that was put forward by Councilwoman Kristy Marmorato, a Republican who represents the East Bronx site. By siding with Marmorato over the Rhode Island-based casino company, lawmakers likely ended the casino bid before it could even compete in the state-led licensing process, and narrowed the number of casino contenders to just seven.

Bally’s chairman Soo Kim called the outcome “incredibly disappointing” in an interview Monday evening.

“We had met the council member’s ask in terms of what exceptional community benefits they wanted. That ask was moving the goalposts from the prior ask, which we had met as well,” he said. “It’s sort of nutty. What more can we do than meet the ask?”

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/politics-policy/ballys-bronx-casino-rezoning-rejected-nyc-council?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

14/07/2025

The developers behind the scuttled Elizabeth Street Garden affordable housing project, which city officials killed last month after a decade of planning, are accusing Mayor Eric Adams' administration of saying one thing and doing another when it comes to its pro-housing agenda.

“I think what they did undermines what the City of Yes is all about,” said Sabrina Lippman, CEO of the region’s Habitat for Humanity affiliate, one of the development team’s partners. “And it sets a really dangerous precedent for other affordable housing developers.”

Angered about being dropped from the project after years of planning and despite clearing multiple legal hurdles thrown up by opponents, Lippman, speaking on behalf of the development team, noted that it may be hard for affordable housing developers to trust City Hall partnerships going forward.

“The rug can just be pulled out at the 11th hour,” she told Crain’s, adding that the three-firm team, which included Pennrose and RiseBoro Community Partnership, hasn’t ruled out suing the city for scotching the project.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/elizabeth-street-garden-housing-developers-accuse-city-setting-dangerous-precedent-last?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

13/07/2025

Even though he went to college in Indiana, Dan Shannon took great delight when thousands of Knicks fans congregated outside Madison Square Garden during the NBA playoffs to watch the team take on the Pacers. Shannon had designed the gathering space.

“It was the best,” he said, “because it had never been a public space before.”
Shannon is an architect whose specialty is freshening up places that have become a little worn around the edges. Sometimes that means changing the look of familiar open spaces, such as the new plaza near Madison Square Garden.

Other times it means giving older buildings a facelift by installing a new glass facade around the old one. His revival projects include 1 Wall St., Penn 2 and 3 Bryant Park.

Harry Macklowe, developer of the first supertall tower to hover over Central Park, said he’s hired Shannon to reposition at least 25 properties in the past 30 years, including the GM Building and 340 Madison Ave.

“Architecture is a form of expression, and we speak the same language,” Macklowe said. “Dan’s always listening, which is good for anybody and especially an architect.”

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/gotham-gigs/architect-dan-shannon-makes-older-buildings-seem-new?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

11/07/2025

A longstanding Jackson Heights bowling alley site that recently reopened as a Lucky Strike is now poised to meet the wrecking ball to make way for a 13-story mixed-use development, records show.

Forest Hills-based developer Cord Meyer, which owns the site, and the Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens filed an application to the Department of City Planning Wednesday seeking a rezoning in order to replace the 1-story bowling alley at 69-10 34th Ave. with a roughly 213,600-square-foot building.

The proposed development would include a 25,346-square-foot community facility owned and operated by Variety, retail space and 276 apartments.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/cord-meyer-development-proposes-mixed-use-development-replace-lucky-strike-bowling?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/07/2025

Waymo's vehicles have returned to New York, and the Google-affiliated company hopes to soon introduce its robotaxi service to the country's most congested city streets.

"Fewer than ten" Waymo cars are operating in Manhattan and "parts of Downtown Brooklyn," a company spokesperson told Crain's. The vehicles are in town for testing and, at least for now, are being operated by humans.

This is not the first time Waymo, an Alphabet Inc. company, has sent its cars onto the city's streets. The vehicles were in New York for a few months in 2021 to collect weather data.

The latest test round is more holistic, meant to collect driving data, map local infrastructure and learn traffic patterns. The intent for Waymo is to be as prepared as possible to launch its driverless rideshare service when — or if — the state lifts its ban on fully autonomous vehicles.

Read more here:

Waymo's vehicles have returned to New York, and the Google-affiliated company hopes to soon introduce its robotaxi service to the country's most congested city streets."Fewer than ten" Waymo cars are operating in Manhattan and "parts of Downtown Brooklyn," a company spokesperson told Crain's. The…

09/07/2025

Who owns the block? Well, if that block is in Park Slope, Cobble Hill or Crown Heights, and especially across swaths of Bushwick, there’s a good chance the landlord is the Carlyle Group.

To an extent not widely publicized, the global private equity giant has been on an absolute tear through Brooklyn in the past few years, vacuuming up hundreds of rental buildings for nearly $800 million while some other investors dump multifamily sites en masse.

And the deep-pocketed buyout firm once known for snapping up defense contractors may have cracked the code when it comes to rental real estate.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/carlyle-group-buys-200-rental-buildings-while-other-landlords-sell?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

08/07/2025

Meatpacking District mainstay Hector's Cafe & Diner is gearing up to close later this month after 76 years in business, the owners announced last week.

The final day for the eatery, which opened at 44 Little W. 12th St. in 1949, will be July 18, said co-owner Nick Kapelonis, as the once-industrial neighborhood prepares for even more change.

"The neighborhood is not the same anymore," he said. "Business has been down since Covid," he added, citing a familiar refrain among those in the diner industry.

The closure comes after city officials in October unveiled a new vision to transform a portion of the historic neighborhood, known for its namesake meatpacking plants and butcher shops, into a "live, work and play" destination called Gansevoort Square.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/meatpacking-districts-hectors-cafe-diner-close-july-18-2025?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

The area is slated to be redeveloped into a 600-unit residential complex with retail and public space.

07/07/2025

The MTA will shut down G train service on several nights and weekends this summer beginning July 14 through August 18 as part of a multi-year project to add new signal equipment to the subway line — the only train that runs entirely between Brooklyn and Queens.

Transit crews are in the midst of work to install new signals to replace mostly original equipment dating to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency.

Work to do so began last summer, which required a nine-week suspension of train service. This time around the MTA says transit crews will work strictly on nights and weekends, when there are fewer travelers on trains.

In the meantime, the more than 150,000 daily riders who rely on the G train can take advantage of free shuttle buses.

Learn more on what G train riders should expect this summer here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/transportation/mta-expects-g-train-closures-nights-weekends-heres-what-expect?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

06/07/2025

It’s been a relatively quiet start to the summer on the Hamptons' hospitality scene. There’s been nothing like the fireworks that accompanied the aborted launch of private members club Zero Bond in East Hampton.

Into the void steps celebrity chef Jeremy Fall. On July 2 the Los Angeles-born, social-media-savvy cook and restaurateur opened Drugstore, a summerlong pop-up in Jack’s Stir Brew Coffee on Montauk Highway in Amagansett.

His menu features a curated list of salads and sandwiches, but the most high-profile item unquestionably is the vibrant-colored Velvet Rope smoothie, which goes for $20 even before add-ins. And that’s not the only thing that stands out about the bold purple-and-chocolate-brown swirled beverage.

The smoothie is part of Fall’s Hamptons collaboration with the members-club reservation platform Dorsia, whose ironic name nods to the fictional restaurant in the film American Psycho. Dorsia, where membership starts with an annual fee of $175 and goes up to $25,000, specializes in getting people into hot-ticket places worldwide, such as Torrisi and Chez Fifi in New York. At Drugstore, Dorsia members will have skip-the-line access to the smoothie — they can preorder it and then go to a dedicated window for pick up.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/restaurants/20-smoothie-celebrity-chef-jeremy-fall-hamptons-summer-menu?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own