New York City wants to re-zone Midtown East from 39th to 57th streets and Second to Fifth avenues to allow for taller buildings.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg hopes the incentives will lead to the demolition of outdated offices, but some religious institutions want a piece of the development pie.
The City Planning scoping session is scheduled for Thursday afternoon, when representatives from St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church and St. Patrick's Cathedral will be pushing to modify the proposal so they could sell air rights to developers and reap the benefits.
For years, landmark institutions have been barred from selling precious air rights. St. Pat's has a million square feet, while St. Bart's has 650,000. At $200 a square foot, the money would be significant.
St. Patrick's is in the middle of a massive renovation project, inside and out.
"The entire building is being repointed, and the windows are being fixed, and the outside and inside of the cathedral are being brought up to snuff," St. Patrick's rector Monsignor Robert Ritchie said. "That's going to cost us over $175 million."
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http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=8826778
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