Gamma Real Estate files plans for 850-foot tower at long-stalled Sutton Place site
When Gamma Real Estate’s $98 million bid won the debt-beleaguered site at 3 Sutton Place just a couple weeks ago at a bankruptcy auction, 6sqft noted that the firm could either re-sell, bring the original plan for a 900-foot condo tower by starchitect Norman Foster to fruition, take on a joint-venture partner, or move forward with a plan of its own. The Real Deal now tells us that Gamma filed plans with the Department of Buildings for an 844-foot, 67-story tower with 389 apartments. However, he says this is to “safeguard the property” while the firms weighs all the aforementioned options.
As 6sqft explained earlier this month, “A bankruptcy judge authorized the sale of the property at 3 Sutton Place in September, after Joseph Beninati’s Bauhouse Group failed to pay back creditors and partners on the 262,000-square-foot development. Gamma controlled the entities that originally loaned Beninati $130 million, but… the developer outbid Brooklyn investor Isaac Hager, paying $86 million for the site and $12 million for additional air rights, far less than the predicted $187 million price tag.”
The plan calls for amenity spaces on the first five floors with two units per floor above. Though the new height is slightly shorter, it’ll likely still draw concerns for being out of scale with the low-rise neighborhood. In November, local residents and elected officials submitted a plan to the City Planning Commission for a 260-foot height cap for the area bounded by East 52nd and East 59th streets east of First Avenue where there is currently no limit on how tall apartment towers can be.
Of the new proposal, Gamma’s president Jonathan Kalikow told The Real Deal, “Obviously one of the big issues is getting the project started and making sure we got moving so its not a stalled project like its been for the past year. We’re just eager to get past the bankruptcy, past the foreclosure and put that behind us and really achieve the ultimate goal, which is to get repaid.”
[Via TRD]
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