Details are slowly coming to light on 65 Franklin at Broadway — and perhaps the saga of the sad pit, which started in 2018, is wrapping up. The big takeaway: with the application of a number of zoning strategies, the building is 36 percent bigger than what the original zoning would have allowed, from 215 feet to 293 feet. And it will be a condo. And while neighbors now have to prepare for months of construction, read on. There is promising news even when it comes to that.

However, scroll down to look at the bulking drawings, since these renderings don’t give a good sense of the height.

To recap:

The site (then called 360 Broadway) was first acquired for $46 million in 2018 by HAP Investments. Initially it was a planned 40-unit, 10-story or so building, 77,000 square feet with the purchase of additional air rights.

By 2023, it had morphed into a 19-story, 41-unit residential tower called the Rebel (yes), still developed by HAP Investments; they bought the site in 2018 for $46 million. Construction on the 210-foot building started in 2019, and the original schedule had them finishing in 2022. Then things stalled.

HAP Investments razed the buildings on the site and as a result, compromised the two buildings next door on both the east and south sides (59 Franklin and 358 Broadway). Now those buildings are part of the new development site.

Then the site sat and sat as an empty lot, blocking the sidewalks on both sides with construction fences and causing trouble for neighbors in so many ways in addition to that: threatening the stability of 358 Broadway and causing passing trucks to drive up on the sidewalk adjacent to 366 Broadway on the other side of Franklin.

Fast forward to 2025 when the site was acquired by Sky Equity, an affiliate of Rabsky Group. They have engaged COOKFOX Architects to create a 24-story residential tower — at a height of 293 feet plus mechanicals — with 107 condominium units, commercial on the first two floors, and a permitted 24-parking space garage in the basement. Somewhere the L-shaped development site that was 59 Franklin plus 358 Broadway was added to the 65 Franklin site. And then they piled on 25,000 square feet of development rights from both the Cast Iron Building (361 Broadway) across the street AND 356 Broadway next door.

There will be a total of 235,000 square feet including 17,000 square feet of commercial.

This is how the height developed:
> the original zoning allowed for 155 base height before a setback, with a max height of 215 feet
> the purchase of inclusionary housing certificates that was used at other sites increased the height to 235 feet by increasing the FAR — floor area ratio
> the purchase of development rights from the Cast Iron Building across the street AND the neighboring building to the south will allow them to go from 235 to 293, and this requires city approvals

(An inclusionary housing bonus gives developers more height in exchange for affordable units, but in this case they purchased certificates that will be applied to a different building — though how you make sure this actually happens is a mystery to me.)

(The city’s new(ish) rules allow a 25 percent increase in height with the acquisition of development rights — I am no longer calling them air rights, since ‘development’ makes more sense.)

Once the project is certified with the Department of City Planning and will then come back to the community board where it will have a public hearing. Community board members had issues with the bulk — you can see it best below — and questioned the 30-foot high arches (there’s two retail floors within them) calling it garish. They also asked for a plan to light the tiny little Benson Place to the east, which people use as a pedestrian thruway.

Top image is looking west from Franklin; bottom image is looking east from Broadway

The developers will have to come back to the community board once they certify with City Planning.

Two neighbors from 356 spoke in favor of the building — saying they welcomed it and said the developers had been transparent with them. (Keep in mind they sold their development rights to the project.) Another neighbor to the south, a commercial real estate broker, said there was the potential for a major cultural tenant — that those tenants want large volume and high ceiling heights.

Construction is expected to take two years. And those crafty neighbors to the south, who sold their development rights, negotiated penalties that get triggered if the developers get behind schedule.

The discussion at the committee meeting was about bulk, but there was a preliminary discussion of the design. The goal, architect Brandon Specketer said, was to take inspiration from the masonry arches and metal work of neighboring buildings but obviously at a very different scale.

The site in 2018