Staten Island will be New York City’s mass timber showcase after the city appointed Artimus and Phoenix Realty Group to build more than 500 mixed-income units on two parcels of land along the New Stapleton Waterfront on the North Shore of Staten Island.
“In New York City, this is a huge mass timber project,” according to Momo Sun, regional director, WoodWorks, Wood Products Council (WPC), who spoke to ConstructConnect’s Daily Commercial News on Friday. about the new project Sun says a preference for the engineered wood material was written into the RFP posted by the city of New York and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC).
“That is a huge milestone because the EDC or the city has never put a material preference in their RFQs, RFPs.”
Momo Sun, regional director, WoodWorks, Wood Products Council (WPC) on the significance of the new project
According to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who spoke about the project last month, the development, which will break ground in 2027, will be the largest mass timber residential project in New York City and one of the largest mass timber residential development projects built for affordable housing nationwide.
“By developing over 500 new mixed-income housing units and expanding public green spaces, we are not only addressing New York City’s housing crisis and advancing promises made in the North Shore Action Plan, but we are also creating a more resilient and sustainable built environment through the use of low-carbon building materials like mass timber,” said Andrew Kimball, president and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation – who will work with the design team to bring the project to fruition.
Speaking to the press, Mayor Adams said the development of the city is a priority: “New York is a five-borough city, and I am a five-borough mayor. That is why we have put Staten Island front and centre from day one of this administration.”
The plans, announced by the city last year, will see the New York developers build two 50-foot timber mega towers on city-owned land along the Stapleton waterfront, within walking distance of the Staten Island ferry terminal. It is the latest in what Mayor Adams has dubbed a “public-private partnership.”
“This is the biggest opportunity to use mass timber at scale in the city,” according to Melissa Román Burch, the Chief Operating Officer for New York’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC), who said the new towers (which come with sizable tax breaks) will eventually house 500 rent-controlled apartments.
Wood Central understands that Artimus and Phoenix Reality will pay the city using taxes, or PILOTs, for the rights to build the projects, which will be “fully capitalised privately,” according to Ms Roman Burch, who added that 25% of the apartments will be reserved for households earning 40% and 80% of the median income.
EDC’s President and CEO, Andrew Kimball, said the projects are “the next step forward in delivering on the Adams administration’s North Shore Action Plan.” They are part of a plan that eventually includes 2,100 new apartments on the North Shore.
The call for the apartments follows the city’s US $400 million commitment to beautify the Stapleton waterfront in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Local residents have complained that parts of the Island’s waterfront, with views of southern Manhattan and the Verrazzano Bridge, have remained inaccessible to pedestrians.
It is part of a long-term goal to revitalise Staten Island’s image, which has seen more than 15 million people ride to the Island via ferry to explore the city’s “forgotten borough” and comes after the EDC last year vowed to bring mass timber to the masses in New York.
As part of the city’s “Mass Timber Studio,” the EDC is now providing technical assistance to local developers and architects, supporting active mass timber development projects in the early phases of project planning and design.”
“For a developer or design team to put themselves through a nine-month studio with us, we expect that all of them will be able to go to the finish line,” according to Cecilia Kushner, the EDC’s chief strategy officer, who added that “we already know that these projects can be permitted, so they will not have any issue on that front.”
Mass timber is on the rise across the city, with the Evergreen Charter School in Hempstead, Long Island, the High Line’s Moynihan Connector, and the New York Climate Exchange, a mass timber structure designed on Governors Island part of a growing number of timber buildings: “It’s just making sure that more New Yorkers in the building construction trade have firsthand experience with it,” Mr Kushner said. “It’s a game of numbers and scale.”
- For more information about the challenges of mass timber adoption, read Wood Central’s special feature.
