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Land Use, Housing & Zoning

July 2021, Joint Transportation & Environment, and Land Use, Housing & Zoning Committee

Redevelopment of 175 Park Avenue, aka Project Commodore, currently the site of the Grand Hyatt New York Hotel at 109 East 42nd St.

At the regularly scheduled monthly Community Board Five meeting on Thursday, July 08, 2021, the following resolution passed with a vote of 35 in favor; 0 opposed; 1 abstaining:

WHEREAS, Commodore Owner LLC, RxR, and TF Cornerstone are seeking multiple approvals to redevelop the Grand Hyatt New York Hotel, which prior to 1977 was known as the Commodore Hotel, and is located at the northwest corner of East 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue; and

WHEREAS, The Commodore/Grand Hyatt Hotel is a 26-story, 295-foot tall building with 1,300 guest rooms and 60,000 square feet of meeting/event space that was built in 1919 as a part of Terminal City, a designed neighborhood to surround Grand Central Terminal; and

WHEREAS, The development site is the 57,292 square foot lot located at the northwest corner of East 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, and is bounded to its west by Grand Central Terminal and the Park Avenue viaduct; and is bounded to its north by the southern end of Depew Place and the Grand Central Market; and

WHEREAS, From 1977 to 1980, the Commodore Hotel was taken over by the State of New York under an urban redevelopment plan, renovated by the Trump Organization, and renamed by the Hyatt Corporation; and

WHEREAS, According to the 1977 redevelopment agreement, if the Hyatt Corporation were to break its 99 year lease with the New York State Urban Development Corporation for the Commodore Hotel site, ownership of the site would revert from the State back to the City of New York; and

WHEREAS, The developers, RxR and TF Cornerstone, have entered into an agreement with Hyatt Corporation for Hyatt to break its lease with the State and the developers have entered into a new lease agreement with the site’s new owner, the City of New York, that would give the developers the Right of First Offer if the City decides to sell the property in the future; and

WHEREAS, The developers wish to create a Qualifying Site by bundling the zoning lots of the 57,292 square-foot Hyatt lot with the already merged lots of Grand Central Terminal, Grand Central Market, and a portion of the Depew Place demapped street bed for a Project Area of 203,872 square feet, which will be the base number used to calculate bonus FAR for the proposed development; and

WHEREAS, The development site is located within a C5-3 zoning district, the Special Midtown District, the Greater East Midtown Subdistrict, the Grand Central Core Area, and the Grand Central Transit Improvement Zone Subarea, which allows for a base 15 FAR development as-of-right and up to 30 FAR with approvals for Special Permits for a public concourse and/or additional subway improvements; and

WHEREAS, The developers are purchasing around 515,000 square feet of transferable development rights (air rights) from Grand Central Terminal for a total of 1,477,625 square feet of As-of-Right development (or 25.79 FAR) on the Hyatt lot; and

WHEREAS, The developers will contribute almost $30 million to the East Midtown Public Realm Fund, which is based on the amount of Transferable Development Rights that will be purchased from Grand Central Terminal; and

WHEREAS, The developers hope to use several special permits, waivers, and zoning text amendments to build a 39 FAR, 83-story, 1,646 foot tall tower that will contain 2.25 million square feet of space, including transit improvements, pedestrian circulation space, and public outdoor space; and

WHEREAS, The developers propose to complete the new tower, transit improvements, and public outdoor space by 2030 after 18 months of demolition and 47 months of construction; and

WHEREAS, The developers propose to pay for the following transit improvements:

  1. Widen Grand Central Terminal’s 42nd Street Passageway with a 10,000 square foot “Transit Hall”
  2. Enlarge, redesign, and add a staircase to the R-238 Fare Control Area subway entrance/exit at Grand Central Terminal’s 42nd Street Passageway
  3. Build the “Short Loop Connection” that will provide a new subway entrance/exit under Grand Central Terminal, connecting the East Side Access platforms and MetroNorth lower-level platforms with the subway by utilizing an unused train tunnel and then connecting up to the subway mezzanine via a new stairs and elevator
  4. Remove the girders that currently take up subway mezzanine floor space and are holding up the current Grand Hyatt Hotel; and

WHEREAS, According to the MTA, these transit improvements will improve the R-238 subway entrance/exit level of service from an E-grade to a C-grade and improve the 42nd Street Passageway from a D-grade level of service to an A-grade; and

WHEREAS, The developers also propose to pay for the following pedestrian and commuter circulation improvements:

  1. Enlarge, redesign, and recess from the street wall the R-239 Fare Control Area entrance/exit at Lexington Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Streets
  2. Renovate the R-240 Fare Control Area subway entrance/exit connecting to Grand Central Terminal’s Lexington Avenue Passageway
  3. Increase the height of Grand Central Terminal’s Lexington Avenue Passageway
  4. Widen the sidewalks adjacent to the building by 5 feet on both East 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue by recessing the building’s street wall
  5. Build an entrance/exit connecting the proposed tower’s 2nd-floor Office Lobby to Grand Central Terminal’s Lexington Passageway; and

WHEREAS, the developers also propose to build a 25,000 square foot public outdoor space of that will almost surround the tower at the 2nd-floor and 3rd-floor levels with two grand staircases connecting it to the East 42nd Street sidewalk and will include:

  1. “Grand Central Terrace,” an area  adjacent to the Park Avenue viaduct on the west side of the tower, with trees, seating, and a large staircase to the 42nd Street sidewalk
  2. “Chrysler Terrace,”  on the east side of the tower, the largest of the three terraces at 10,000 square feet, that has a small cafe, a water feature, trees, seating, glass railing overlooking Lexington Avenue, an elevator and staircase to the Lexington Avenue sidewalk, and a large staircase to the 42nd Street sidewalk that is symmetrical to the large staircase to the west terrace
  3. “Graybar Terrace,”  along the north side of the tower, an upper-level (3rd-floor) space that has a large cafe with transparent walls, shrubbery, seating, and is accessible from the east and west terraces by stairs and elevators, including an elevator to the Lexington Avenue sidewalk; and

WHEREAS, The developers are seeking for all of these transit, circulation, and outdoor space improvements to make the Hyatt site eligible for an additional 4.27 FAR (or 870,840 square feet), based on the enlarged Qualifying Site’s two zoning lots; and

WHEREAS, Community Board Five expresses its strong concerns that taken as a whole, the project's design may alter or obscure the important views of the iconic landmark structures of Grand Central Terminal as well as the Chrysler Building valued parts of the neighborhood community for all New Yorkers, which under current laws and procedures are not easily protected, and that these issues should be mitigated with a design that defers to the landmarks; and

WHEREAS, The East Midtown zoning requires hotel use to be supportive of neighborhood character of a premier business district, the developers also seek a Hotel Special Permit to have a 500-room hotel on the upper floors of the tower with a ground floor lobby fronting Lexington Avenue; and

WHEREAS, The developers also seek a Special Permit, several waivers, and several zoning text amendments to modify the street wall height, set back, and public space for a Qualifying Site in the following ways:

  1. A text amendment to allow two or more contiguous zoning lots to be one Qualifying Site, if Grand Central Terminal is included as one of the bundled zoning lots
  2. A text amendment to allow a Qualifying Site to have been already developed by less than 15 FAR, if Grand Central Terminal is included within the Qualifying Site’s zoning lots
  3. A text amendment to allow commuter rail projects and other projects not identified by the MTA to be eligible for East Midtown’s Transit Improvement Bonus
  4. A text amendment to change both the Transit Improvement Bonus maximum and the Public Concourse Bonus maximum from 3 FAR to 6 FAR
  5. A waiver to allow the tower to setback from the street line and to allow for the irregular street wall caused by the sidewalk widening, public terraces, and grand staircases
  6. A waiver to allow for the tower’s massing not to comply with the minimum 66% Daylight Evaluation Score along Lexington Avenue
  7. A waiver to allow for the developers to not calculate a Daylight Evaluation Score from the Park Avenue viaduct
  8. A waiver to allow larger than permissible entrances to the site’s lobbies, transit concourses, and public outdoor spaces
  9. A waiver to not have any street-level retail on 42nd Street or Lexington Avenue
  10. A waiver to not have the Publicly Accessible Space at ground-floor level
  11. A waiver to not have the Publicly Accessible Space regulated under usual Public Plaza provisions, but rather under a Restrictive Declaration
  12. A text amendment to allow East Midtown Special Permits to be extended for more than a four year term to complete substantial work
  13. A waiver to allow a ten year term for substantial work to be completed at the Hyatt site; and

WHEREAS, The developers also seek comments on the design of the tower, Public Concourses, and Publicly Accessible Space to the Public Design Commission because the proposed development will be on City-owned land; and

WHEREAS, Although, in February 2021, Manhattan Community Board Five voted against the tower’s design as creating a harmonious relationship with Grand Central Terminal’s landmarked façade, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the tower’s design as being harmonious; and

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board Five recognizes the unique location of the Hyatt zoning lot:

  1. situated above the MTA’s second busiest subway station (at least it was for many decades prior to the 2020 pandemic shutdowns)
  2. contains the R-238 Fare Control Area: identified during the 2005 Hudson Yards Rezoning in the Environmental Impact Statement’s list of needed mitigations to alleviate a commuter choke point
  3. contains Grand Central Terminal’s Lexington Passageway and adjacent to the heavily congested 42nd Street Passageway; and

WHEREAS, During the 2017 Greater East Midtown Rezoning process, Manhattan Community Board Five’s advice to the Department of City Planning to include the Hyatt site as a possible redevelopment site went unheeded; and

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board Five agrees that the list of subway, commuter rail, and pedestrian circulation improvements proposed by the developers are robust, substantial, and long needed; and

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board Five agrees that both a Transit Improvement Bonus and a Public Concourse Bonus should be granted at this location; and

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board Five supports a Zoning Resolution text amendment to allow transit projects to be eligible for the East Midtown Transit Improvement Bonus that are not on the East Midtown MTA list of pre-identified subway projects; and

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board Five is not in favor of the proposed Zoning Resolution text amendment to change 81-64 Rows F and G from 3 FAR to 6 FAR each, which would allow for the maximum FAR bonus to double under East Midtown’s Special Permits for Transit Improvements or Public Concourses and thus create a major incentive for bundling zoning lots into larger than necessary Qualifying Sites; and

WHEREAS, The Zoning Resolution currently allows for only one zoning lot to be evaluated as a Qualifying Site under East Midtown’s regulations; and

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board Five is supportive of a Zoning Resolution text amendment that will allow for underdeveloped zoning lots, like Grand Central Terminal’s zoning lot, to come together with one other contiguous zoning lot only to create a Qualifying Site, and Manhattan Community Board is against the proposed text amendment to allow two or more zoning lots to be bundled into a Qualifying Site, which would incentivize stacking larger amounts of FAR on to smaller development lots; and

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board Five supports the Zoning Resolution text amendment to remove the 15 FAR minimum condition for a Qualifying Site, as long as Grand Central Terminal is included within the bundle of two contiguous zoning lots; and

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board Five does not agree that demapped streets that are actively used by more than one zoning lot, like Depew Place, should be used in calculating FAR for a zoning lot or a Qualifying Site; and

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board Five finds it is appropriate to waive the street wall regulations to allow for the proposed setbacks due to sidewalk widening and creation of public outdoor spaces; and

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board Five finds it is appropriate for the grand staircases and office lobby entrance on East 42nd Street to exceed the normal regulations of 40 foot maximum width and 15 foot maximum depth with the proposed 56.2 feet width and 20.26 feet depth; and

WHEREAS, This proposed development design does not include street-level retail storefronts on East 42nd Street and Manhattan Community Board Five is not supportive of waiving the street-level retail requirement, which promotes a vibrant street life in the business district; and

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board Five would not like to see any waivers for meeting the minimum Daylight Evaluation Scores or waivers for calculating Daylight Evaluation Scores from the Park Avenue viaduct due to our district’s history of development that diminishes Daylight in the district; and

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board Five finds it appropriate to waive the conditions for the Publicly Accessible Space for the “Chrysler Terrace” portion of the public outdoor space, so that space can be elevated to the second floor level and not at the required ground-level; and

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board Five was active in the Greater East Midtown Rezoning process and continuously noted the lack of high-quality, inviting, accessible, passive-use, outdoor public space in East Midtown; and

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board Five wants to continue the discussion with the developers and the Department of City Planning regarding the Restrictive Declaration that will govern the public outdoor spaces on the three terraces and two grand staircases; and

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board Five finds it is appropriate for a Zoning Resolution text amendment to allow the City Planning Commission to extend the four-year term of Special Permits in order for substantial work to be completed and finds that a ten-year term at the Grand Hyatt site is appropriate; and

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board Five finds that the proposed hotel at this location is appropriate; and

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board Five has no objection to the City of New York entering into an agreement which will allow the City to reacquire ownership of the development site, and if the City sells the lot, to give the developers the Right of First Offer; therefore be it

RESOLVED, Manhattan Community Board Five approves with strict restrictions the application by 175 Park Avenue for the many Special Permits, Zoning Resolution text amendments, waivers, public designs, and the disposition of City-owned property with the following conditions:

  1. All text amendments should be restrictive to allow for the proposed conditions at this particular site and exceed them:
    1. two contiguous zoning lots may be evaluated as a Qualifying Site (not the proposed “two or more zoning lots”), as long as one of the two zoning lots includes Grand Central Terminal
    2. the maximum bonuses for the Transit Improvement Special Permit and the Public Concourse Special Permit are limited to a combined 4.27 FAR (not the proposed “6 FAR”)
  2. Depew Place square footage within a Qualifying Site is not included in FAR calculations, because it is an actively-used roadway by multiple zoning lots and the 175 Park Avenue proposal demands access to that roadway
  3. The massing of the proposed tower should be shifted to allow more Daylight on Lexington Avenue
  4. More retail should be on East 42nd Street, possibly located under the grand staircases
  5. The terms of the Restrictive Declaration regarding the public outdoor spaces (the terraces and staircases that are a part of the Public Concourses and Publicly Accessible Space) should be negotiated with the Community Board and written before the City Planning Commission and Public Design Commission approves any Special Permits, waivers, and designs for the Publicly Accessible Space, especially the terms for:
    1. Hours the public can access the space, hopefully as much as 18 hours a day, 7 days a week
    2. Signage, especially elevator access from the street-level of the grand staircases
    3. Lighting design
    4. Number of seats
    5. Number of trees
    6. Public art installations & rotation
    7. Security, maintenance, and sanitation
    8. Restrictions on private use and media events
    9. Community, cultural, and educational uses

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