Two years after a rezoning, plans for St. John’s Terminal are dramatically smaller than the original vision.
The majority of the project will now be dedicated to office tenants, with Oxford Property Group unveiling plans earlier this week for a 1.3 million-square-foot glass commercial building.
The megaproject was originally expected to be residential focused, with nearly 1,600 apartments (a third of which would be affordable), plus a hotel, 400,000 square feet of retail and a 15,000-square-foot public recreation center. Now, it’s likely to accommodate roughly 420 apartments, sources told Crain’s. The 200 to 230 market-rate apartments would be larger than average, and the remainder would be affordable units set aside for seniors, according to the report.
The change comes as the residential market in Manhattan, particularly on the high end, has been sluggish. Developers Westbrook Partners and Atlas Capital sold the southern portion of the property for $700 million last year to Oxford Properties of Toronto, which said it’s planning a new 1.3 million-square-foot office building.
In 2016, the City Council approved the rezoning that was expected to create a five-building complex along the Hudson River Park, the report said. Westbrook Partners and Atlas Capital also purchased air rights from the park. [Crain’s] — Meenal Vamburkar