City issues RFP on East Side

Real Estate Weekly, Sept 1, 1993

Mayor David N. Dinkins announced the release of a request for proposals (RFP) to develop the new International Center at Beekman Place in a 19th-century former school building near the United Nations. The city's Economic Development Corporation (EDC) will oversee the RFP, which seeks proposal s for the purchase or lease and the preservation and redevelopment of the property, located at 931 First Avenue in Manhattan. The building, originally called the Beekman School, served for a time as the United Nations School. The RFP went out last week and responses must be submitted by October 29, 1992.

Located on the northwest corner of First Avenue and 5 1 st Street, the site is three blocks north of United Nations headquarters in Turtle Bay. The property includes a 42,000 square-foot, four-story building on a 14,850 square-foot parcel of land. Current zoning allows for an additional 106,500 square-feet to be added to the existing building. The allowable uses include residential, commercial, and community facility uses. The site would be suitable for U.N.-related use or for residential and commercial development.

In January, 1991, Mayor Dinkins asked the Economic Development Corporation to issue an RFP for the property's sale and redevelopment. At the time the site housed a shelter for homeless women. Work ont he RFP was suspended until EDC found a suitable replacement site for the shelter, located at 225 East 45th Street, and completed the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) for the new site. The ULURP proceedings were completed in June, 1993, clearing the way for the issuance of the request for proposals.