posted first page........adding space to buildings by buying up other buildings' air rights...
.....better than 275 sq foot apartment...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/realestate/the-great-race-for-manhattan-air-rights.html
The Great Air Race
Air rights were pertinent to the development of Isis Condominium on East 77th Street.
By ROBIN FINN
Published: February 22, 2013
Because a room with a view has always been preferable to one without, the price of air in New York City is becoming more expensive. Yes, the air is for sale, but not on sale.
And not the dodgy urban air the city’s eight million inhabitants breathe as they scurry around the boulevards, but the rarefied and fast-disappearing air overhead where condominium towers do not fear to tread, and rooms with sunlit windows can make the lucrative difference between a legal three-bedroom residence and a mere two-bedroom with a den/office.
With Manhattan’s skyscraper-proof bedrock in finite supply and the city’s fixation on housing and envelope-pushing office buildings on the upswing — and also the impetus behind the proposed rezoning of 70 blocks around Grand Central Terminal called Midtown East — the sky is not only the limit, it’s the solution. Ubiquitous developers-about-town like Gary Barnett, Harry B. Macklowe and the Zeckendorf brothers are all not-so-secret members of the air appreciation society.
“When I tell people outside of New York that I’m buying air from other building owners, they look at me as if I’ve lost my mind,” said Kenneth S. Horn, the president of Alchemy Properties. His 18-story Isis Condominium at 303 East 77th Street acquired air rights from two adjacent tenements; it cantilevers eight feet above the roofs of both of them beginning at the sixth floor. The payoff for this complex and expensive undertaking is 360-degree views, more spacious apartments, abundant light and higher resale value.
“If the real estate gods line up,” Mr. Horn said, “and I find a site in a friendly neighborhood where I can and do buy air rights, and then let’s say I can’t build any higher, but if they let me cantilever, I can create views and add square footage to my project.”
Air rights are, in actuality, not fluffy chunks of available or orphaned air. They are unused or excess development rights gauged, like building density or lot size, by the square foot and transferable, when zoning permits it, from one buildable lot to another. They have become the reigning currency of the redevelopment realm, major components in the radical vertical transformation of the city’s skyline.
These days developers don’t just tailor their blueprints to the lot they own: they often annex, for fees that can run into the multimillions, the airspace above and around their property. The process, essentially an invisible merger of building lots that tranlates into taller, heftier towers with increased profitability, is emerging from a minislump dictated by the economy.
“The trading of air rights is more prevalent than it’s ever been before,” said Robert Von Ancken, an air-rights expert and appraiser who is the chairman of Landauer Valuation and Advisory Services, “and it’s why you’re seeing these monster buildings springing up all over town. All of these new supertowers that are changing the look of the city’s horizon, they couldn’t happen without air-rights transfers.”
Mr. Von Ancken estimates that air rights trade for 50 to 60 percent of what the earth beneath them would sell for. Once sold, they are gone for good, a detail that occasionally adds a serious stress component to negotiations.
Unless the property doing the selling is a designated city landmark, these deals are usually restricted to properties that share at least 10 feet of lot line. Landmarks can sell their unused air rights to neighbors across the street or down the block.
Not all small-fry neighbors opt to sell: “We get turned down more often than not,” said Michael Namer, the chief executive of Alfa Development, who bought air rights to expand two of his downtown condominium projects, the eight-story, 36-unit Village Green on East 11th Street, and the nearly completed 14-story, 51-unit Chelsea Green on West 21st Street. Both are in height-restricted neighborhoods.
“There are people who believe in skyscrapers and people who don’t,” he added, “and you can’t do the Hudson Rail Yards and you can’t do One57 without air rights, but that’s not really the issue. The city Planning Department has taken steps to ensure that the way we sculpt our city is something that makes sense in terms of light and air. The reason behind the big increase in air-rights trades is that, bottom line, they can make the difference between a marginal and a profitable project.”
Post-recession, the air above New York City is its own best marketing tool.
“It’s coming back with a vengeance,” said Robert A. Jacobs, a land-use specialist and partner at Belkin Burden Wenig & Goldman. “The technology available is such that if you’re a developer of a residential property you should build as high as you can, because you get the higher sales price for the higher floors. The race to accumulate light easements and air rights is tied to the mandate for these high-priced condos to offer views worthy of the purchase price,” added Mr. Jacobs, who lectures on air rights at the city bar association.
If there is a danger inherent in them, it is the potential, Mr. Jacobs mused, for a city dominated by towers that overshadow the rest of the landscape.
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http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/02/19/norfolk_streets_glassy_new_pendant_tower_unveiled.php
