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A developer is asking the city for permission to demolish a row of century-old Upper East Side buildings and replace them with a 39-story, 354-unit residential tower, according to a report by Pincus Co.
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First Sigma, led by Jacob Orfali and Steven Orfali, filed a land-use application with the city to build a nearly 500-foot tower at 1097 First Avenue. The site, at the northwest corner of First Avenue and East 60th Street, currently contains a row of five-story buildings dating to at least the early 20th century. Public records show First Sigma owns seven properties in the immediate area: 1097, 1099, 1101, and 1103 First Avenue, and 345, 347, and 349 East 60th Street.The proposed tower would rise 495 feet and include roughly 316,000 square feet of space. Under the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, about 89 units — 25 percent of the residential space — would be set aside as permanently affordable. The plans also call for more than 42,000 square feet of community facility space on the second through fourth floors and about 4,400 square feet of ground-floor retail.
To make the project possible, First Sigma is asking the city to rezone the site — currently designated for commercial and light industrial uses — to a high-density mixed-use district. The rezoning request leans on zoning tools introduced through Mayor Adams’ City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative, which was approved by the City Council last year.
The application notes that Manhattan Community District 8, which covers the Upper East Side, has been one of the city’s lowest producers of affordable housing, generating just one affordable unit for every 1,000 existing units — ranking it fifth lowest citywide by that measure, according to city Housing Preservation and Development data.
No parking is proposed or required for the development, which is located in a transit-dense part of Manhattan.
The application is now in the city’s public land-use review process. More details are available through the NYC Department of City Planning.
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