NYC's Plan to add 9500+ Housing Units to Midtown

The New York City Council approved the Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan (MSMX), which rezones four areas amounting to 42 square blocks of Manhattan to allow for residential and mixed-use development that could yield over 9,500 new housing units in neighborhoods that contain some major job centers but little housing.

As Cozen O’Connor explains in JD Supra, “The newly adopted zoning districts, together with the newly created Special Midtown South Mixed-Use District, will permit housing in an area with exceptional public transit access and job opportunities that has, for decades, generally prohibited housing development.” New developments will be required to include income-restricted units as 20 to 30 percent of a building’s floor area.

“The new Special District, which governs the four quadrants, allows floor area exemptions for the construction of public schools on qualifying sites, a floor area bonus for the provision of covered pedestrian spaces, and an extension of an existing floor area bonus for mass transit station improvements.” The plan also includes $120 million in investments in the garment and fashion industries and “more than $325 million in investments to transform Broadway between 21st and 42nd Streets into a fully pedestrianized, park-like promenade.”