Stop and smell the flowers at the L.E.A.F flower show: "L.E.A.F, a celebration for all New Yorkers to come together and enjoy the beauty of nature, arrives in New York City’s iconic Meatpacking District this month, for the first annual festival of flowers. A weekend designed to spotlight world class floral design, L.E.A.F will take place on Saturday, June 12 from 11AM-7PM and Sunday, June 13 from 11AM-6PM in the Meatpacking District, featuring a European-style flower market presented by TF Cornerstone around Gansevoort Plaza, a series of floral installations and displays, as well as retail and hospitality activations across the neighborhood. One of New York’s most iconic neighborhoods, L.E.A.F is proud to partner with the Meatpacking District as the long-term home for the annual festival. With New York booming back to life, the Meatpacking District is reawakening and welcoming back visitors with numerous public events, interactive art installations, open-air retail, buzzy restaurants, and sought-after hotel brands. "(L.E.A.F)
Mile-end warehouses or a new public beach?: "Be careful what you wish for. That’s the message Two Trees Management has for opponents who want to block the developer’s plans for a pair of apartment towers on the Williamsburg waterfront. The Brooklyn-based developer is contending with pushback on its plan to rezone a large property along the East River to make way for its “River Ring” mixed-use project, which would include 1,250 rental apartments, office space, a pool and beach. But if opponents are successful in shooting the rezoning down, Two Trees says it will sell the site, and the most likely buyer will be a logistics-developer that will build a last-mile distribution warehouse." (The Real Deal)
Thor's new Amazon warehouse on the Red Hook waterfront breaks ground: "Construction has started at the future Red Hook warehouse that will soon be home to an Amazon distribution center. Located at the former site of the Revere Sugar Factory at 280 Richards Street, on a pier sandwiched between IKEA and the former location of Fairway, it was long planned to be the home of a Norman Foster-designed waterfront office complex. The developer, Thor Equities, scrapped those plans in 2019." (Brownstoner)
Landmark East Village diner Odessa hits Craigslist: "A beloved East Village diner is now on the menu for buyers. The landmark Odessa Restaurant — one of the neighborhood’s last 24-hour diners and a mainstay for the after-bars crowd — is for sale on Craigslist after closing last summer. The Ukrainian eatery, which also served classic American greasy spoon grub on Avenue A and East Seventh Street, can be snapped up for $400,000, according to the ad, which notes the restaurant is in 'turn-key condition.'” (NY Post)
Paris's popular Pompidou Center to open a satellite in New Jersey: "In recent years, the Pompidou Center in Paris has tried to extend its reach globally by opening museum outposts in cities hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles away. In 2015, it opened one in Málaga, Spain; in 2018, in Brussels; one year later, in Shanghai. So what’s the next destination for the Pompidou, the Parisian art museum and cultural center? Jersey City, N.J., naturally. The institution’s president, Serge Lasvignes, and the mayor of Jersey City, Steven Fulop, will announce on Friday that the city plans to turn a century-old industrial building in Journal Square into the Pompidou’s first North American satellite. If the City Council approves the plan, the museum, which is expected to open in early 2024, will have access to art from the Pompidou’s collection of around 120,000 works and to its array of experts — as well as the benefit of being associated with one of Paris’s most popular cultural attractions." (NYT)
Dems want to axe 421-a: "Real estate developers are increasingly nervous about how some Democrats running for mayor could upend their industry. Chief among developers’ concerns is the threat by progressive candidates to eliminate the 421-a tax abatement without an alternative incentive plan—a possibility that some in the industry say could bring housing development to a halt at a time when it’s truly needed." (Crain's)
62% of Manhattan employees may head back to the office come September: "Employer expectations of how quickly office workers will return to Manhattan have jumped 37% since vaccination rates have risen according to a new survey by the Partnership for New York City. Current projections are that 62% of workers will be back in September, most for three days a week. Business travel has resumed and will increase this summer, although at a significantly lower volume than pre-pandemic trips." (Partnership for NYC)
The American Museum of Natural History reopens its Halls of Gems and Minerals following a $32M revamp: “The enhanced Halls present up-to-date science, which has progressed significantly. I [George E. Harlow, a curator of the museum’s Division of Physical Sciences] look forward to seeing visitors delight in remarkable gems and mineral specimens from across the globe and our own backyard, like those in the Minerals of New York City display featuring specimens from all five boroughs.” (AMNH)
Developer looks to build a bigger tower in Gowanus: "Manhattan-based developer Avery Hall Investments wants to buy the city-owned air rights for sale at a 4th Avenue transit substation as part of the Gowanus rezoning, which would allow the builder to add dozens of apartments to a planned mixed-use tower next door. The sale of development rights at the Garfield Substation would allow Avery Hall to add more flats to its proposed 15-story building at 272 4th Avenue, at the corner of Carroll Street, according to the firm’s chief." (Brownstoner)
Even with green roof incentives, the high cost of installation and maintenance deter building owners: "There are more than 1 million rooftops in New York, but as of 2016 only 0.1% of them were “green,” according to the Nature Conservancy, meaning they had plants or solar panels. [...] The cost of retrofitting a brownstone or townhouse building with a relatively small roof starts at $65 per square foot, Burchell said, and can easily go beyond $90 per square foot. The typical tax rebate of $5.23 per square foot isn’t enough to move the needle. In fact, the government benefit might not even cover the cost of hiring an architect or engineer to see if a renovation is viable." (Crain's)
