Central Parking 515 7th Avenue
Manhattan, NY

515 7th Avenue involved the remediation and recertification of a 360 car valet parking facility including the relocation of 72 car stacking lifts. It is a ramp accessed facility.

Sol Melia Hotel
141 West 43rd Street
New York, New York

Interactive Development Associates (IDA) and Karen Backus Associates (KBA) were selected by The Church of the Nazarene, Dream Hotels and Project Find to market the development rights (TDRs) for The Chatwal Hotel and The Woodstock Hotel in Times Square. WQB Architecture PLLC provided zoning analysis and design for the development of potential receiving sites in the immediate area. This illustrates a 290 room luxury Sol Melia Hotel at the Meyers Parking garage site which spans from West 44th to West 43rd Street.

Confucius Plaza was built in 1970 as a joint venture between NYS Educational Construction Fund, the NYC School Construction Authority, a developer and the local community to develop a new elementary school and a mixed use building which houses nearly 1000 families. Currently, many of the original tenants have “aged‐in‐place” and the Co‐op Management is exploring opportunities for servicing their senior population as well as bringing younger families to the property. WQB/IDA was hired to assist the management with analysis of residual development rights and exploring development opportunities such as a 240 bed, 150,000 sf senior living facility which can be connected to their original complex. The project is currently under review by the governmental agencies involved.

Although West 42nd Street is one of the busiest streets in Manhattan, the blocks west of Tenth Avenue were never rezoned from their historic status as a Manufacturing District related to the docks along the Hudson River. As new development moved through Times Square westerly to the Hudson new zoning was required to incentivize development in the area. A team was organized by the original owners of the block from Eleventh to Twelfth Avenue to negotiate with the City Planning Commission, Community Board 4, and various other agencies to change the area from a low density manufacturing district to a high rise mixed use community. IDA (with WQB Architecture) worked with Howard Zipser of Stadtmauer Bailkin LLP to change the zoning and subsequently with Newmark Realty to resell the property for development. The property was recently completed by the Moinian Group and named The Atelier, a 50-story luxury condominium.

IDA served as a planning, design, and development consultant to CITIARC in planning this 1.2 million square foot international entertainment and shopping center. In addition to retail space, the project contains a 5-star hotel, health spa, and luxury apartment units.

WQB Architecture provided zoning analysis for a 30,000 sf building and marketing feasibility to determine the value of a 12,000 sq ft site in Crown Heights, Brooklyn for sale by the Church of Nazarene and to prepare an offer to purchase for L-train capital.

The Aloft Hotel on Postepu Street represents WQB’s continuing involvement with Destination Hotel partners and their world wide involvement in the hospitality market. The Postepu project in Warsaw Poland is another facet of WQB’s ability to service clients internationally. This project’s key components are:

– 125 Room Starwood Aloft Hotel
– 135 Suite Starwood Element Extended Stay Hotel
– Common Public facilities including a 500 person conference / banquet area
– Parking
– Phase II – office and serviced apartments

New York City Educational Construction Fund
New York, New York

The New York Educational Construction Fund is a municipal organization which is responsible for capital budgets related to the funding of new schools in the five boroughs of New York City. In 1996, as the NYC real estate market was recovering from the 1992 “recession,” the NYECF determined that 7 schools were in prime locations and that the development rights (TDR’s) of those schools had sufficient value to fund new schools and services in those neighborhoods, NYECF issued a national RFP for consultants to provide analysis required to evaluate the scope of development of each site, provide a valuation study for each site and assist the City of New York in marketing the TDR to the development community. After extensive interviews, IDA was awarded the contract to prepare development and marketing packages for the 7 schools. To date, 2 of the schools have been sold and are in construction – P.S. 59 and M.S. 114. M.S. 114 was developed as a 35 story condominium, the Azure, above a new school. PS 59 will be an elementary school and a new High School of Art and Design, which will be in a 50 story condominium tower on a retail base.

University Towers
101 Fleet Street
Brooklyn, New York

University Towers was built as a middle class homeownership project in the 1970’s. It has 22 buildings on 10 acres of land in Downtown Brooklyn. The property was recently rezoned to allow for towers which will more than double the number of apartments on the property. WQB Architecture worked for the owner to determine the location and sizes of 12 new towers and multiple building addition which are currently being completed.