Belaire Apartments

Belaire Apartments (also known as the Belaire Condominiums and The Belaire) is a mixed-use high-rise condominium apartment building in Manhattan, New York City. The 42-story[1] building is located at 524 East 72nd Street between York Avenue and the FDR Drive.

Belaire Apartments
Belaire Apartments in 2006 after a fire, caused by a plane crash, was extinguished.
General information
Location524 East 72nd Street, Manhattan
Coordinates40°45′57″N 73°57′08″W
Completed1988
OwnerHospital for Special Surgery
Height
Roof512 ft (156 m)
Technical details
Floor count42[1]
Design and construction
Architect(s)Frank Williams and Associates
DeveloperZeckendorf Company

Description

It has 183 condominium apartments, a health club, parking garage and swimming pool.[2] The first fourteen floors are used by the Hospital for Special Surgery. The building has prominent views overlooking the East River. It is 512 feet (156 m) tall.

It was designed by Frank Williams and Associates, and features a red brick facade. The building has a reinforced concrete structure, making it one of the tallest concrete buildings at the time of its construction.

History

The building was completed in 1988 and was constructed by the Zeckendorf Company, on the site previously occupied by a parking garage owned by the Hospital for Special Surgery.

After construction Belaire enjoyed reductions in its property taxes for 10 years as a result of Section 421-a tax exemption certificates, a New York City affordable housing program.[3] This happened because another company renovated 30 apartments at the Spring Creek Gardens complex in East New York and sold the tax benefits it accrued to the Zeckendorf Company.[4][5]

In October 2006 residents included novelist Carol Higgins Clark (38th floor); developer Arthur W. Zeckendorf (42nd floor); former Bloomingdale's CEO and Chairman Marvin S. Traub; once-jailed junk-bond king Ivan Boesky; Cigar Aficionado and Wine Spectator magazines publisher Marvin R. Shanken; Cleveland Guardians manager Manny Acta;[6] and former president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari.[7]

As of 2007, the Hospital for Special Surgery continued to own the land, and in exchange for selling the development rights to Zeckendorf, it received use of the lower 12 floors for offices. Originally nurses and technicians were housed there, as these individuals had a difficult time finding affordable housing in New York. Floors 13-22 were still used for housing hospital staff and guests.[8] The Belaire also houses office and laboratory space, sports injury rehabilitation areas, and guest facilities for family members of patients at the Hospital to which it is connected via a causeway on the third floor.

Plane crash
Main article: 2006 New York City plane crash

On October 11, 2006, a four-seat, Cirrus Design SR-20 single-engine fixed-wing aircraft owned by New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle[9] crashed into the apartment building. The two occupants of the plane, Lidle and his flight instructor Tyler Stanger, were both killed in the crash; one resident of the Belaire was severely injured in the resulting fire. The National Transportation Safety Board found that the likely cause of the crash was pilot error.

References
  1. Barron, James (October 12, 2006). "Manhattan Plane Crash Kills Yankee Pitcher". The New York Times. The plane bore into an apartment on the 30th floor, which under the building's numbering system is Apt. 40ABG
  2. "Belaire Apartments". CondoCompany.com. Archived from the original on November 4, 2006.
  3. "421-a Affordable Housing Program". New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development website. Archived from the original on October 10, 2006.
  4. Depalma, Anthony (April 3, 1988). "Construction Of Apartments In Manhattan Falls Sharply". The New York Times. Retrieved October 14, 2006.
  5. Peterson, Iver (December 17, 1989). "Linking 421a to Low-Income Housing". The New York Times. Retrieved October 14, 2006.
  6. Bulliet, Mark; Lewis, Brian; de Kretser, Leela (October 12, 2006). "HI-RISE HOUSES MOVERS, SHAKERS". New York Post. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved October 14, 2006.
  7. Gill, A.; Wells, Laura (November 5, 2009). "Why hotels when you have Belaire, Mr. President?". The Nation. Archived from the original on November 8, 2009.
  8. Lombino, David (November 12, 2006). "Architect of Unlucky Building Says He Was Confident It Would Stand". The New York Sun.
  9. "Yankees pitcher killed in crash of small plane in Manhattan". CNN.com. October 12, 2006.
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