Find your plus one: "Vessel, the hulking Shawarma-like installation in Hudson Yards which closed down in January after a spate of suicides there, will reopen this Friday with a few major changes. Visitors will no longer be able to visit Vessel alone—they have to come in groups of two or more—and they are now charging people $10 to enter at most times." (Gothamist)
There's a virtual landgrab happening: "Hrish Lotlikar, co-founder and chief executive of SuperWorld, an augmented reality virtual world, said the company had sold 'thousands of properties' already in 2021, with users spending, on average, around $2,000 on the virtual real estate platform. SuperWorld is geographically mapped onto the real world, divided into 64 billion plots of equal size covering the surface of the earth. So a person could theoretically own virtual land encompassing the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum in Rome or prime commercial property in Lower Manhattan. Or if you’re nostalgically inclined, an NFT of your childhood home. 'Some of those iconic properties people bought right in the beginning,' said Mr. Lotlikar." (New York Times)
Time Warner Center renamed Deutsche Bank Center: "One Columbus Circle was formally renamed Deutsche Bank Center on Monday as the bank prepares to move its North American Headquarters into the building later this year. Senior leadership from Deutsche Bank Americas and Related Companies unveiled the new marquee. The new headquarters will be home to nearly 5,000 Deutsche Bank employees occupying over one million square feet of office space in building when it begins its official opening in July. The bank, which is relocating from Wall Street, signed a 25-year lease for one million square feet of office space in the building in 2018. It will occupying all but one floor of the property." (REW)
De Blasio nixes hotel tax for the summer: "Mayor Bill de Blasio today signed an Executive Order eliminating the 5.875% hotel room occupancy tax rate for a three-month period, from June 1, 2021 to August 31, 2021. The relief provided by the tax rate reduction is designed to help accelerate the recovery of the hotel industry, which has been particularly hit hard by the pandemic. This executive action will help hotels keep their doors open, retain jobs, and gain a more stable footing as the city continues its path toward a full recovery. [...] The dramatic decrease in tourism and business travel due to the pandemic has had a significant impact on the hotel industry. The stresses on the industry are evident in a number of key indicators, including substantial decreases in jobs, inventory, and occupancy rates. Revenue from the hotel room occupancy tax is down approximately 89% as compared with Fiscal Year 2020, further demonstrating the pandemic’s impact on the industry." (Office of the Mayor)
Subway ridership numbers continue to rise: "On Friday, May 21, more than 2.3 million New Yorkers rode the subway, another pandemic-era ridership record for the subway, that comes just a week to the day after subway ridership hit the 2.2 million milestone. Ridership also hit pandemic-era records on the Long Island Railroad, which carried 110,100 customers on Friday, May 21, and Metro-North Railroad, which carried 94,500 customers on Saturday, May 22. Vehicular volumes on MTA Bridges and Tunnels also reached a pandemic-era high on Friday, May 21, with 965,528 vehicles using the nine crossings, the highest number since Feb. 14, 2020. Friday’s subway ridership was 2,330,089. There were also 1,182,899 bus trips and 4,258 Staten Island Railway trips on May 21, for a total of 3,517,246 trips taken that day on New York City Transit."" (MTA Press Room)
Subway shops continue to struggle even as riders return to the rails: "THE CITY reported in September that 35 of the 215 retail spaces in the subway — more than 16% of storefronts of varying sizes — had gone out of business since the start of the pandemic. Overall, there are now 211 retail spaces in the subway, according to the MTA, but only 42 are occupied. Andrei Berman, an MTA spokesperson, said the agency has agreements to fill 47 other spaces in the subway system. That figure does not include storefronts that are connected to subway stations where retail tenants pay rent to a landlord other than the MTA." (THE CITY)
More electric busses are coming: "Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officials today announced the Authority will be increasing its procurement for electric buses this year from 45 to 60 – a 33% increase, the latest step in the MTA’s ongoing mission to transform its 5,800 buses to a zero-emissions fleet by 2040. The electric buses will operate out of each of the five boroughs with the first expected to hit the road in late 2022. The Authority already operates 25 all-electric buses, and the historic 2020-2024 MTA Capital Program includes $1.1 billion in funding to buy another 500 and build charging infrastructure at eight of the 28 depots where the MTA stores and maintains its bus fleet." (MTA Press Room)
BAM adjacent tower meets fierce opposition: "Fort Greene civic gurus rejected a proposed 23-story mixed-use tower that would include more than 100 new housing units and an expansion of the Brooklyn Music School at 130 Saint Felix St., saying the new development was too large and didn’t have enough affordable housing. [...] Manhattan-based developers Gotham Organization applied for a rezoning to allow them to build the 267-foot tall structure in the vacant lot right next to the iconic Williamsburg Savings Bank Tower. The proposed tower is just over half the height of its 512-foot Art Deco neighbor and would top out at 20 feet below the larger building’s shoulder." (Brooklyn Paper)
Developer wants to build a 100 percent affodable building in East New York: "Plans that were presented to Community Board 5’s Land Use Committee on May 18 call for a nine-story mixed-use building, located at 749 Van Sinderen Avenue. The building will have approximately 119 units, all affordable. Retail will be on the ground floor. Currently, the property is zoned for manufacturing (M1-1), which the developer wants to change to residential with a variety of commercial uses (C4-4L). The project has yet to be certified by the Department of City Planning, which would kick off the ULURP process." (Brownstoner)
