New Report Analyzes the Market for Buying Sky in NYC
A new Furman Center analysis of development rights transfers in New York City reveals a complex market, with immediate implications for the city's Midtown East rezoning proposal.
The report, Buying Sky: The Market for Transferable Development Rights in New York City (PDF), analyzes development right transfers in New York City between 2003 and 2011, looking at the prices paid, number of rights transferred, location of the sending and receiving parcels, and legal mechanisms used, in order to shed light on an important, but hard-to-track market.
Almost a third of the large residential and commercial buildings recently constructed in Manhattan below Central Park used development rights acquired from other lots, but tracking the transactions is difficult. The report examines 242 arms-length transactions for which complete data is available, and finds wide variation in the price paid per square foot of development rights, even for sales within the same neighborhoods, programs, and time periods.
The report is particularly relevant to the city’s Midtown East rezoning plan, which would allow some owners to build larger buildings in exchange for cash contributions to a district fund that would in turn finance pedestrian and transit infrastructure improvements in the area.
