Midtown South rezoning could bring 4,000 new homes to Manhattan business, retail area
A proposed rezoning of Midtown South intended to make the Manhattan neighborhood more residential could lead to the creation of nearly 4,000 new apartments over the next decade, city officials say.
The Department of City Planning unveiled a draft version of its Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan, or “MSMX” — a key preliminary milestone in the process of rezoning the neighborhood, which is mostly businesses and offices.
The new apartments could be built or converted from existing office space in four areas within a 42-block swath of Midtown between W. 20th and W. 40th Sts. and Fifth and Eighth Aves.
The proposed new zoning includes blocks north and south of Madison Square Garden and Penn Station, which are the object of state-backed redevelopment plans. The rezoning proposal also covers much of the Garment District.
The draft plan was released at a virtual town hall meeting late Thursday.
The vision includes about 800 to 1,100 affordable apartments. “Outdated” zoning does not permit new housing within the quadrants, said City Planning Director Dan Garodnick.
“Believe it or not, if you wanted to build housing in most of this community right in Midtown Manhattan today, you simply could not,” said Garodnick. “It’s time that we change that. And the Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan is the vehicle to get us there.”
The area covered by the plan currently has 7,000 businesses and 135,000 jobs but just 2,300 homes. About 74,000 homes are within a ten-minute walking distance.
The neighborhood, a longtime office hub, has suffered post-pandemic as more people work from home. Compared to pre-COVID figures, its storefront vacancy rates are higher and local subway ridership is lower.
Mayor Adams’ administration hopes that MSMX will revitalize Midtown South and help transform it into a 24-hour neighborhood with a better mix of commercial and residential uses.
MSMX comes amid a citywide housing crunch and historically low apartment availability rates.
“We all know, I think, very clearly, what we need to do is to get more housing onto the market,” said local City Council member Keith Powers. “We have looked at this area and other areas. It seems very antiquated rules that have been standing in the way of doing that.”
Thursday’s meeting was the culmination of six months of public input. But the plan is still in its early stages. Further steps include an environmental study and the city’s months-long land use review procedure.
City Planning officials stress the draft plan is just that: a draft subject to revisions as the process continues. Additional housing could also be created if the state legislature passes measures including lifting a limit on “floor area ratio” — which limits a building’s floor area according to the size of the lot it’s built on — and a replacement for an expired construction tax break.
The public will be able to weigh in the MSMX plan at a public scoping meeting on April 18.
