New York City Development News

[desertpunk]

From: http://gothamist.com/2010/07/13/big_...ation_comi.php

Big New Pier AND Ferry Coming to Greenpoint!

For anyone who's ever gazed wistfully across the East River from Greenpoint on a Monday morning and thought, "If I just had a jet ski I'd be at work by now," here's good news: The NYC Economic Development Corp. [NYCEDC] has put out a request for proposals for a ferry station and a pier on the river in northwest Greenpoint!

The city is looking for a developer to design and reconstruct a new pier structure on a mostly underwater 17,880 square foot parcel of land situated at the western terminus of Java Street, and to have it ready within two years of signing a contract. The pier will be complimented by a ferry station at the end of India Street, which is one block north. (Earlier today, The NY Post erroneously reported that there would be two piers built, but we're told by the NYCEDC that India Street will just be a ferry landing.)

"We look forward to responses that will seek to rejuvenate an underutilized portion of the Greenpoint waterfront and will allow local residents and visitors to access the waterfront. Revitalizing the City’s waterfronts is a top priority of NYCEDC," says David Lombino, an NYCEDC spokesman. "Oh HELL yes," says everyone in Greenpoint fed up with the G>L transfer

[desertpunk]

From Curbed: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/m...-rss&FEEDNAME=

Planning Commission Gives Hotel Penn Execution its Blessing
Thursday, July 15, 2010, by Joey



The City Planning Commission approved the variances needed for developer Vornado to replace the shabby loved/hated Midtown hotel with 15 Penn Plaza, the chubby 67-story tower seen at right (nicknamed "Freshman 15" by a Curbed commenter), designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli and slated to become the city's fourth tallest office tower. The City Council still needs to approve the zoning changes, and Vornado won't tear down the Hotel Penn (across the street from Penn Station on Seventh Avenue) until an anchor tenant can be locked up for the new tower, so those immaculately coiffed poodles will still have a place to tinkle for now.

[desertpunk]

From Curbed: http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/0...m_the_dead.php

Friday, July 16, 2010
Construction Watch:
Tribeca's Stalled 471 Washington Street Starts Growing Up
Friday, July 16, 2010, by Sara


When we took a look at 471 Washington Street last month, the property had recently changed hands, with fresh DOB permits for the foundation work. We saw signs of that work actually happening, which seemed like a heck of a lot of progress for a building that sat stalled for most of last year. And now! A tipster's photo, above left, shows that even more of the glassy condo has gone up. Someday, Tribeca, you might even see that hot rooftop

[desertpunk]

From the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/re...ref=realestate

As Everyone Else Discovers Brooklyn, So Have Hoteliers
Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times
By SUSAN STELLIN
Published: July 13, 2010

Brooklyn is in a hotel-building boom, after decades in which the Marriott near the Brooklyn Bridge had the borough’s lodging market mostly to itself. The Marriott used to be just about the only game in town, but other Brooklyn hotels, like the Sheraton, above, have arrived.

The new competitors include budget brands like Best Western, which has three locations in Brooklyn, and the Sheraton Brooklyn, which opened downtown in May. Over the last few years, Brooklyn has also welcomed boutique hotels like the Nu Hotel in Boerum Hill, Hotel Le Jolie in Williamsburg and Hotel Le Bleu in Park Slope. And Smith Travel Research, the hospitality research company, estimates that 40 more hotels are under construction in Brooklyn or in the planning stages, although some may never get off the ground if oversaturation becomes a concern.

While Brooklyn’s cachet is no doubt one reason for the boom, analysts say the main draw for developers is the same factor that has enticed bearded trend-setters and stroller-pushing parents across the river: lower real estate prices. “The biggest reason that we’ve seen development in Brooklyn is because the land economics are so intense in Manhattan that it’s historically difficult to build there,” said Sean Hennessey, chief executive of Lodging Advisors, a consulting firm in New York City.

But Brooklyn’s lower land costs come with several caveats. Mr. Hennessey said room rates were generally at least 15 percent below a hotel of similar quality in Manhattan, yet wages and many other operating costs were comparable. And Brooklyn is a less desirable location for the business travelers who are critical to the bottom line. “The ideal hotel from an economic perspective is right next to six giant office towers,” Mr. Hennessey said. “Brooklyn does not have an office tower or corporate base the way Manhattan does.”

Even so, there is little disagreement that Brooklyn is overdue for some fresh lodging options, and owners and operators of these newer properties say they are getting a mix of business and leisure travelers, including wedding guests and other small groups. Those business travelers represent a broader cross-section of the work force than the typical Midtown executive. “We get a lot of bands at Hotel Le Jolie,” said Todd Cahill, vice president of hotel operations for Globiwest Hospitality Group, which owns Hotel Le Jolie, Hotel Le Bleu and the three Brooklyn Best Westerns.

Mr. Cahill said the Beach Boys had stayed at Hotel Le Bleu and the Neville Brothers at Hotel Le Jolie during the Fourth of July weekend, and that the Brooklyn Brewery, Urban Outfitters, Hewlett-Packard and Fujitsu were some of the companies that had accounts with his hotels. “Some of their offices are in Manhattan, but they like the Park Slope area and being a block from Fifth Avenue,” he said.

Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn is not like Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, but for visitors who prefer being close to neighborhood restaurants, boutiques and friends or family members who live in Brooklyn, it may be more of a draw than Midtown’s shops and crowds.

Javier Egipciaco, general manager of the Nu Hotel, which opened in July 2008, said its location near the bars and restaurants on Smith Street had helped the hotel during the recession by attracting guests visiting friends nearby. “People still get married, they still have their friends and family coming into town,” Mr. Egipciaco said. “Although we didn’t get the rate that we would’ve liked, that did help keep us afloat.”

Almost a third of the hotel’s business comes from word of mouth in the community, Mr. Egipciaco said. Referrals are rewarded with “neighborhood discounts” of $60 to $80 off the hotel’s rates, which are $179 to $399 a night. According to data gathered by Smith Travel Research, the average hotel rate in Brooklyn in May was $147, compared to $255 in Manhattan and $205 in New York City over all. Brooklyn’s occupancy rate was 72 percent, versus 91 percent in Manhattan and 78 percent for the whole city.

That was the first month that Smith Travel had released data specifically for Brooklyn, said Jeff Higley, a company vice president. Previously, the number of hotels in Brooklyn was too low to meet the firm’s threshold for disclosure. Smith Travel based its numbers on about 20 hotels in Brooklyn that shared their data. Next door to the 321-room Sheraton, Starwood plans to open in October a 176-room Aloft hotel, its less expensive brand aimed at younger and technologically savvy travelers. But the two hotels are located in downtown Brooklyn, in a less glamorous area than the brownstone Brooklyn neighborhoods where the boutique properties have settled.

Although there are plenty of high-rise condominiums and rental towers nearby (many still not completely occupied), the area’s retail options are mostly fast-food restaurants and discount stores, rather than the boutiques, cafes and restaurants that have made Brooklyn such a hot destination, first for residents and now tourists.

Hoyt Harper, a senior vice president of brand management for Sheraton, said this location was convenient to transportation hubs and would be well positioned to attract Nets fans when the new stadium opened nearby in Atlantic Yards. “We’re two years ahead of the sports facility,” Mr. Harper said, “but we’ll be in a great location to capture the business that brings to the market.”

He also pointed out that downtown Brooklyn was undergoing a shift toward more residential development and that the long-range planning involved in developing a hotel sometimes meant getting in when the right opportunity presented itself. “When you build a hotel, you’re looking five to 10 to 20 years out,” he said. “As Brooklyn reinvents itself, we’ll be in the heart of it.”

[rencharles]

Hey, I also deserve credit. See my original post and the blog later.
My post: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...341146&page=81
This blog: http://nyc-architecture.com/?p=687

[HK999]

Originally Posted by rencharles

Hey, I also deserve credit. See my original post and the blog later.
My post: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...341146&page=81
This blog: http://nyc-architecture.com/?p=687

so you are the one who copied my list...!
you need to update your blog!

Originally Posted by HK999

NYC construction status

(updated list, includes U/C, App, Prep, Pro) -- 12.07.2010 --

EDIT: oh lol, you mean the blogger also used your post! well, what can we do...

[rencharles]

Yes, the blogger also copied my post with pictures of projects organized by height and other features.

[desertpunk]

From Curbed: http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/0...eal_friday.php

High Line's Culture Shed is a Robot in Disguise
Wednesday, July 21, 2010, by Joey



The announcement of Diller Scofidio + Renfro's Culture Shed (note: real name) on West 30th Street along the High Line arrived not with a bang, but with a meh. We blame the photo of the model, which is still the only visual of the arts space that's been released, and lacks the whimsy of the firm's renderings of the High Line, Lincoln Center renovation and the crazy thing with the bubble on top. Because we're slow, PSFK had to annotate the photo to show us why the Culture Shed is, in fact, cool. And it is! Big sliding canopies! Wheeee! PSFK thinks it may be "NYC's first transforming building," so the big lingering question is whether it will end up as an Autobot or Decepticon

[desertpunk]

From Curbed: http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/0...ollar_more.php

Carnegie 57 in Summer Slowdown

MIDTOWN—The foundation is poured and we've been waiting for Extell's gargantuan Carnegie 57 to get going. But a special Curbed correspondent says the construction crew told him steel won't start rising until August due to some delays. We're betting the neighbors wouldn't mind additional delays. [CurbedWire Inbox]

[HK999]

NYC construction status

(updated list, includes U/C, App, Prep, Pro) -- 02.08.2010 --

SUPERTALLS

U/C:

- 1WTC (417m roof, 541m spire, currently working on the 32th floor)
- 2WTC (390m roof, 414m spire, foundation work / piling)
- 3WTC (349m roof, 378m spire, foundation work / piling)
- Carnegie 57 (306m roof, formerly known as 157 W. 57th St., steel rising soon - expected in august.)

Approved:

- Tower Verre (320m roof - needs a redesign, will be built)
- The Gira Sole (305m roof- when they finish the subway tunnel (soon) this will be U/C, Prep)
- Tishman Speyer Towers (336m x 2, on hold, Prep)

Proposed:

- 15 Penn Plaza (371m roof, currently in the approval phase, decision if hotel penn will be razed or not, city council to make final approval in semptember, likely to be approved)
- Midtown Towers (371m roof - aka One Manhattan West)
- Brookfield Properties Towers (370m roof, they need to build the platform first)
- New York Tower (305m roof)
- Edgar Towers Skyvoid (396m roof, newest supertall proposal)

SKYSCRAPERS

U/C:

- 4WTC (297m roof, 6 floors already done, more floors to rise by august)
- 440 West 42nd street (204m roof, will T/O soon)
- 99 Church Street (278m roof, construction started, currently on hold)
- 56 Leonard Street (253m roof, construction started, currently on hold)
- Beekman Tower (267m roof, already T/O, cladding nearly done - 1 floor to go + parapet cladding)


Approved:

- 250 East 57th Street (218m roof, Phase I already U/C, Phase II following)
- 366 10th Avenue (236m roof)
- 50 West Street (213m roof, on hold)
- 610 Lexington Avenue (215m roof, on hold)
- 5WTC (228m roof)

Proposed:

- 1 Madison Avenue Addition (285m roof)
- PANYNJ Tower (261m roof)
- 260 12th Avenue Hotel (252m)
- Two Manhattan West (285m roof)
- 45 Broad Street (216m roof)

HIGHRISES

U/C:

(counting only 100m+ buildings)

- The Setai (193m, final height confirmed, already T/O, will be completed this fall)
- 8 Stone Street (123m roof, T/O)
- 11 Times Square (183m roof, T/O)
- 123 Washington Street (192m roof, T/O, will be completed this year)
- 150 Amsterdam (143m roof, Com)
- 770 11th Avenue (also known as Clinton Park, 106m roof)
- 785 Eighth Ave (173m roof, Com)
- 839 Sixth Avenue (also known as Eventi, 187m, T/O, soon to be completed)
- One Madison Park (189m roof, 196m spire, T/O, Com, also known as The Saya)
- Tower 111 (169m roof, T/O, base cladding done, rest of cladding to be finished soon)
- 246 Spring Street (also known as Trump Soho, 138m roof, Com)
- International Gem Tower (180m roof)
- 70 West 45th Street (157m roof, T/O)
- 510 Madison Ave (118m roof, T/O)
- 80 Dekalb (111m roof, Com)


--- upcoming --- (there are at least 60 100m+ towers U/C, App, Prep or Pro in NYC)

[desertpunk]

Awesome!

[HK999]

thanks! i'll be away for some time, likely by the end of august, so the next update will be in september. there has been a major change: The Setai was degraded to a highrise. this means that NY has 52 buildings which exceed 200m. can't wait to see the progress of 1WTC and beekman when i'm back.

[Teslatron]

I was just near 1 DeKalb avenue in downtown Brooklyn this morning, and the CityPoint site was busy with workers. So I guess the Phase 1 of this development is U/C. Don't know when they gonna start with the CityPoint tower though and how high its supposed to be. I checked Emporis and it lists it as a 65 storey tower.

[desertpunk]

From the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/ny...ref=realestate

Condé Nast to Move to Skyscraper at Ground Zero
By CHARLES V. BAGLI
Published: August 3, 2010



Condé Nast, the publishing giant, has signed a tentative deal to move its stable of chic magazines to ground zero, where it will anchor the skyscraper now under construction, according to two real estate executives who have been briefed on the negotiations.

The deal to bring Condé Nast to the building once known as the Freedom Tower would signal a remarkable turnaround for a project that had been considered a marketing nightmare. The 1,776-foot-tall skyscraper will be the tallest building in New York when it is completed in 2013. If the deal goes through, employees of Condé Nast — publisher of Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Vogue and 15 other magazines — would move in 2014 from their current home in Times Square.

The company, which currently occupies 800,000 square feet at 4 Times Square, notified its employees in a memo Tuesday morning that it was in “active negotiations” to move to 1 World Trade Center but a final decision was several months away. After years of delay, the steel latticework for the $3.2 billion building is rising hundreds of feet into the skyline. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the building, recently renamed it 1 World Trade Center. The authority is hoping that Condé Nast will bring the same kind of cachet to a rebuilt trade center that the publisher brought to a dowdy Times Square in the late 1990s.

“Just as it did for Times Square, a Condé Nast move would provide instant credibility to the World Trade Center site and, indeed, to the entire downtown market,” said Carl Weisbrod, who had been active in rejuvenating both Times Square in the 1980s and, more recently, Lower Manhattan. “Moreover, it would provide sorely needed diversity to Lower Manhattan’s economy and would be the vanguard of a broader shift of creative companies from Midtown to the south.”

And Condé Nast may not be the only company considering a move to the tower. Bank of New York has also talked to the authority in recent weeks, although brokers say the bank is considering a half-dozen locations. The Port Authority declined to comment on any ongoing negotiations with tenants. Stephen Sigmund, a spokesman for the authority, did say, “There is clearly momentum both in the building of the World Trade Center site and the growing interest from potential tenants.” But the two executives, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the pending deal, said that Condé Nast would take up to one million square feet in the 2.6 million-square-foot skyscraper.

[Uaarkson]

I'm shocked! Shocked!

[desertpunk]

I know, Anna Wintour will make a great gargoyle though...

[desertpunk]

From: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...TATE/100809880

August 06, 2010 11:00 AM

Groundbreaking set for Whitney Downtown


(Downtown Express) -- Preparations for the Whitney Museum of American Art's new building are on schedule. Groundbreaking for the site of the new six-story Whitney Downtown is set for May 2011 on Gansevoort Street at the southern entrance to the High Line Park. The Whitney board of trustees voted unanimously to go ahead with the estimated $680 million project. The new museum, designed by Renzo Piano, is expected to open in 2015. The fundraising campaign for the project this spring reached $372 million, which is 63% of the estimated $590 million goal. The total project budget of $680 million includes $230 million for the endowment, as well as construction and land costs

[desertpunk]

From: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...TATE/100809884

Long Island City Becomes More City-Like .

By BRITTANY HUTSON
Long Island City, a community in Queens on the bank of the East River, is starting to live up to its name: It's beginning to resemble a self-contained city.
image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/katie_cat/

The 50-story Citigroup building in Long Island City. Plans for a 35-story hotel to be situated across the street were detailed last week.

That's due to a diverse mix of development that intermingles residential, commercial, artistic and public space. There's even a touch of Hollywood, thanks to Silvercup studios, New York's largest film studio, where "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City" were filmed. The studio has been around for awhile, but the other changes are turning Long Island City, once an unappealing industrial district, into a trendy place to live and work. "Long Island City is going through a whole transformation," said Joseph Conley, chairman of Community Board 2. "It had this sense of being gritty because it was primarily industrial for many years…people need to come out and take a second look."

What they will find is a high level of construction and plans for new spaces and places—from office towers to hotels to parks. Nearly 5,000 residential units are currently under construction or have been recently completed. The transformation began in 2001, when the Department of City Planning rezoned 37 blocks, which included nine blocks of Jackson Avenue. Much of the new development is either on or off of Jackson Avenue.Last week, Japanese hotel operator Toyoko Inn Co. detailed plans to develop a 640-room hotel on Jackson Avenue. At 35 stories, it will be the largest city hotel outside of Manhattan and will stand across the street from the 50-story Citigroup tower, which was built in the late 1980s.

According to Gayle Baron, executive director of the Long Island City Business Improvement District, boutiques and bakeries have expressed interest in the area within the past few months. New restaurants have recently opened and are contributing to the blossoming street life on Jackson Avenue, including the Burger Garage, featuring high-quality burgers; LIC Market, a restaurant, wine bar and market on 44th Drive, a block away from Jackson; and M. Wells, a diner a block away on 49th Avenue that serves high-end meat and has been getting rave reviews.

JetBlue Airways is moving its corporate headquarters from Forest Hills to the historic Brewster building on Queens Plaza off Jackson Avenue, by 2012. The building was the former home of Brewster Aeronautical Co., which manufactured airplanes for the Navy during World War II. The city's Department of Health also will relocate to Queens Plaza into Two Gotham Center, a 662,000-square-foot, 21-story tower, by late 2011. Also off of Jackson, City University of New York's School of Law will move from Flushing into six floors of a 14-story building at Two Court Square by the fall of 2011.

Jackson Avenue's appeal lies in its location as a transportation hub. The 7 and G trains both have subway stops serving the corridor. It is also an arts destination, with attractions such as the Museum of Modern Art's PS1 Contemporary Art Center, which has an outdoor dance party every Saturday in the summer; 5Pointz, an outdoor exhibit space for graffiti; and the Sculpture Center. Even with these attributes, Ms. Baron said that 10 years ago, the area "did not have the degree of residential development and commercial business that is in place and on the drawing board now."

The Gantry Plaza State Park, which has views of Manhattan and four piers that extend into the East River, is being expanded to 40 acres from 11 acres. Outside of the residential and commercial development, Jackson Avenue is a part of an $80 million capital-improvement project that will install new sidewalks and planted medians, street furniture and a 1½-acre park. "They are making Jackson Avenue into how it should be," said Andres Tobon, who works at the Sage General Store on the avenue. "People will be more willing to come and won't think of this just as the industrial Long Island City

[desertpunk]

From Curbed: http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/0...k_terminal.php

Delta Shows Off What's Replacing Doomed JFK Terminal
Thursday, August 12, 2010, by Joey
Delta's Terminal 4 at Kennedy International Airport is swallowing Delta's Terminal 3, which means it's the end of the journey for that relic of sophisticated jet age cool. Formerly known as the Pan Am Worldport, Terminal 3 has been heavily modified over the years, but many are still sad to see it go—especially with the wrecking ball also threatening I.M. Pei's Terminal 6. Looking ahead, the Architect's Newspaper has some renderings of Delta's expanded new Terminal 4, designed by SOM. We may be losing the flying saucer ceiling of T3, but all those new security stations should make travel less torturous.
image hosted on flickr

image hosted on flickr

image hosted on flickr

And here's a sneaky little surprise: The $20 million renovation of Eero Saarinen's landmarked Terminal 5 (out of use since JetBlue opened its spiffy new Terminal 5) is nearly complete, according to a Port Authority spokesperson. No opening date is set

[desertpunk]

From the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/ny...er=rss&emc=rss

E-Mails Show State Officials’ Skepticism About Willets Point Project
By FERNANDA SANTOS
Published: August 12, 2010

Even as the Bloomberg administration promotes the $3 billion development of Willets Point in Queens as one of its signature projects, state officials whose approval is needed have privately raised concerns over highway ramps crucial to the proposal and have questioned whether the development will ever get off the ground.



State officials have repeatedly expressed frustration with the city’s inability to provide reliable information and the pressure it was placing on them to expedite their analysis, according to a review of hundreds of e-mails involving the Willets Point project that were provided to The New York Times by an opponent of the project.

Michael Bergmann, a structural engineer for the State Department of Transportation who was part of the team reviewing the city’s application, wrote to the department’s regional director and other colleagues on Dec. 28: “Unless the preparers of this report start accepting the idea that it is seriously flawed, we are going nowhere.”

About a month later, after pointing out a mistake in a document that put the development’s completion date as 2107 instead of 2017, Peter King, a project manager for the state, wrote to a colleague, “Perhaps that reference to 2107 may have been closer to the truth than anyone realizes.”

By that point, the city’s Economic Development Corporation, which was overseeing the project, was pushing state officials to finish their work so that the ramps, which would connect Willets Point to the Van Wyck Expressway, could move on to the final stage of approval by the Federal Highway Administration.

Several months later, state officials did not seem very optimistic about the project’s future.

“If I were a betting man, I’d start dropping the odds regarding success for E.D.C. on this project,” Mr. King said in an e-mail to a state transportation analyst on May 11. “Resistance seems to be building.”

He was reacting in part to a group of business and property owners in Willets Point who had organized an effort to try to derail the project. As part of that, the opponents had filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the State Transportation Department seeking copies of all communications on the plan, hoping to pry open a behind-the-scenes bureaucratic process the public often knows very little about.

They also were hoping the e-mails would provide fodder for their campaign. The messages — about 200 from May 2007 to May 2010, among State Transportation Department staff members, federal highway officials, city officials and private consultants — show the state’s concern about the safety, design and traffic impact of the ramps.

A spokesman for the development corporation, David Lombino, said those concerns were being addressed in a revised plan that the city intended to submit to the state by the end of the year. Mr. Lombino conceded, however, that the ramps’ approval “has been more time-consuming than originally planned.”

The e-mails show state regulators raising various concerns. Do traffic projections account for simultaneous events at Citi Field stadium next to the development site and the nearby Billie Jean King National Tennis Center after Willets Point is fully occupied? Could one of the exit curves be too tight? Might the cluster of exits and merges confuse drivers and lead to accidents?

Such back and forth among different government agencies working together on a specific matter is certainly not uncommon — particularly on large, ambitious projects like Willets Point, which envisions the construction of 5,500 apartments, office buildings, retail stores and a hotel, replacing the auto repair shops, factories and junkyards that have operated there for decades.

What seems unusual is the annoyance state regulators expressed with the work of the consultants hired by the city to work on the ramps’ design. The consultants submitted numerous written responses and clarifications to questions and sat with the regulators in several meetings, but still failed to satisfy them, the messages show.
“We have reviewed this whole package several times, and we keep seeing the same things,” Mr. Bergmann wrote to Mr. King and Tracy Sayegh Gabriel, a vice president at the development corporation, on Dec. 30. “Clarification is not our problem — we understand the design concepts. There are several key elements in the draft report that we are not willing to accept.”

Mr. Lombino said disagreements were a part of the process, adding, “We make proposals and then work closely with our counterpart agencies and regulators, revising those proposals to produce the best project possible.”

As part of the approval process for the project, the city is preparing an assessment of the ramps’ impact on the environment, which will be the subject of a public hearing next month. The assessment has to be reviewed by state transportation officials and the federal highway agency, which can approve it or request a more extensive review, an outcome that would further delay the project.

The ramps must be built before the city can exercise its eminent domain power to take any land at Willets Point from owners who are unwilling to sell. Many of the owners of larger properties there have already agreed to sell.

Mr. Lombino said the city controlled nearly 80 percent of the land in the area that would be the first phase of the development, on the southern tip of the 60-acre site, which is roughly bordered by Roosevelt Avenue, 126th Street and the Van Wyck Expressway.

But about 20 owners of land and businesses are resisting and have filed a motion in State Supreme Court in Manhattan seeking to force the city to redo its environmental review of the entire project.

They have hired a lobbyist who helped defeat Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plans to build a mall at the old Kingsbridge armory in the Bronx, and an environmental lawyer and traffic engineer who played key roles in the fight against Westway, an underground highway proposed along the West Side of Manhattan.

“We’re looking for any way that we can to stop the project,” said Jerry Antonacci, whose waste transfer company, Crown Container, has been in Willets Point since 1959.