City Council approves Related's rezoning for MTA yards in West Midtown

The City Council yesterday approved a rezoning of the 26-acre Western Yards of the MTA that clears the way for the Related Companies and Goldman Sachs to build a platform over the rail yards and erect eight towers with a hotel and more than 5,000 apartments.

The council's action also included an agreement by the developers and the city to preserve a total of 1,294 affordable apartments in the neighborhood, according to an article in today's edition of The New York Times by Charles V. Bagli.

The city originally wanted to build a football stadium over the western and eastern yards that are separated by 11th Avenue. That plan, however, was subsequently abandoned and five development teams then vied for the rights to develop the sites. Tishman Speyer Properties was chosen by the city, but then withdrew and the city named the Related Companies as the developer of the sites that are between 30th and 33rd streets and 10th and 12th Avenues in West Midtown.

"With the rezoning in place and the extension of the No. 7 subway line on the way," Mr. Bloomberg said at a news conference Monday, "the area is finally poised to become a vibrant new residential and commercial neighborhood with more than 10 acres of open space, new cultural amenities and a new public school," according to Mr. Bagli's article, which added, however, that "it may be years before the first building is erected, given the recession, widespread layoffs and hundreds of stalled residential projects in the city."

"Jay Cross, president of the joint venture, Related Hudson Yards, acknowledged Monday that the developer had yet to design the residential towers and would not begin the office towers until it secured a major tenant," the article noted, adding that "after lengthy negotiations with community groups, elected officials and the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, Related promised that 431 of the more than 5,000 apartments it planned to build at the site would be at below-market rates. The developer also pledged to preserve an additional 401 apartments in nearby housing complexes it owns for subsidized housing. At the same time the city agreed to build 320 apartments for low- and moderate-income families on sites it owns in the neighborhood and to try to acquire an additional 150 units in single-room occupancy hotels."

Related is scheduled to sign a contract with the transit authority, Mr. Bagli wrote, for the development rights at the end of January and to give the authority a $43.5 million down payment, adding that "the developer is still negotiating a closing date for the eastern railyard; the closing for the western yard will take place a year later. So far it has paid the authority about $25 million."