In the past week, workers have boarded up the corner of what will be 644 E. 14th St. ...
... and brought in the heavy equipment...
Madison Realty Capital apparently has the green light (DOB approved the permits earlier in the year) for a 24-story residential building here (and apparently the city addressed the contamination reported on the site).
The rendering for the all-new 644 E. 14th St. is up on the plywood...
Plans for a development this size were first unveiled in June 2022.
The 234-foot-tall building will be known as 14+C, according to the Fischer + Makooi Architects website.
Details:
14+C is a luxury rental with a modern façade composed of terracotta panels and window wall.The building houses 197 apartments ranging from studio, 1 & 2 Bedroom.
No word on how many "affordable" units will be included in 14+C, one of the stipulations for being allowed to build a larger (by nine floors) building.
There were already approved plans for a 15-floor mixed-use building, though no affordable units were attached to that version. As revealed in the spring of 2021, several developers spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby the city for NYCHA air rights to make this a larger structure with more housing.
In the spring of 2022, the NYCHA and Madison Realty Capital filed documents seeking a non-ULURP modification — known as an LSRD — to the development plan. (Madison Realty Capital paid Opal Holdings $31.3 million for the property in May 2020; Opal Holdings bought the parcel in June 2016 for $23 million.)
Here were some of the maneuverings necessary to expand the footprint of the building, as first reported by PincusCo:
The application seeks to modify the boundaries of the previously approved plans and zoning calculations by expanding the zoning lot to include 644 East 14th Street (Block 396, Lot 29). Through the zoning lot merger, the development rights from the existing LSRD comprised of Campos Plaza I and II, which are owned by a joint venture that includes NYCHA ... can be transferred to Block 396, Lot 29, a vacant property owned by Madison Realty Capital.
In June 2022, Community Board 3 signed off on the plan, which was expected to generate $19.5 million for the NYCHA, to be exclusively used at the adjacent Campos Plaza II for capital repairs and other programmatic needs as determined by a community planning process involving NYCHA and the residents of Campos Plaza II.
A previous post on the development has more background, including some opposition to the building. Per one resident: "While we are all for the development of that corner ... and the affordable housing element of the plans, we are not happy with the sheer size of the footprint and the excessive height that goes along with the proposal." There are also concerns about what the excavation work might do to the adjacent buildings on 14th Street.
The corner property has been in a stalled-development mode for years. This space last housed the single-level R&S Strauss auto parts store, which closed in April 2009.
No. 644 has an August 2025 completion date, per the rendering.
H/T Delphine!