Coming in 2018: A New Western Rail Yard!

Might be a bit premature to get in line for a Related Companies-built condo on the western rail yard. The state released an early document in the rezoning process for the site just south of the Javits Center that lays out a tentative schedule for the eight towers slated to rise on the property, with the earliest completion date set for September 2015, and the latest being December 2018. (The document is for the western half of the 26-acre West Side rail yards, as the eastern half was rezoned in 2005, mostly for commercial buildings.)

Related won the rail yards back in May, when it pledged to give the M.T.A. (the site's owner) just over $1 billion for the rights to do $15 billion in development on the eastern and western yards. Related plans to start on the eastern yard first, perhaps with a large commercial office building.

Some tidbits from the "draft scope of work" [PDF], all relating to the western yard, not the site as a whole:

• The grid is back! After Brookfield Properties received many plaudits from community groups and urban planners for installing a street grid in its failed bid, Related has added a planned "driveway" on the equivalent of 32^nd and 31^st streets. Related had previously followed the city/state's design guidelines rigidly, which called for a large canyon of open space with buildings to the north and south. Now they seem to have drifted slightly from those guidelines—a document crafted in large part by the city's planners—as Related plans a building almost in the middle of the canyon. (Urban planners genearlly prefer a frequent street grid to break up "superblocks," but the city has pushed for a large expanse of open space in order to better connect the area with the waterfront.)

• The number of apartments, both condo and rental, that would be allowed under the zoning is much higher than the number that Related planned earlier in the year. In an M.T.A. summary of the proposals in the spring, Related had plans for about 3,200 units on the western rail yard, and 1,400 on the eastern yard. Now, according to the scoping document, the proposed zoning changes would allow for up to 5,407 units on just the western yard, should the company build to the maximum allowed (or up to 4,573 if the company decides to build a large commercial building on the northeast corner of the site).

• The first order of business is to build a platform over the LIRR rail yards below, which would start in 2010 on the north end and slowly roll southward, with buildings popping up as it advances.

• Dr. Stephen Ross? The scope notes the possibility of an "outpatient health care facility" of 200,000 square feet, included in the commercial building.

• The city is moving forward on two other West Side sites where it has planned to do below-market rate housing. One lies on the west side of 10^th Avenue between 48^th and 49^th streets, over an Amtrak line, and the other sits on the east side of Ninth Avenue between 53^rd and 54^th streets. They are anticipated to be completed between 2016 and 2018.