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 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
ArchitectFrank 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 property tax reduction for 10 years as result of Section 421-a tax exemption certificates, a New York City affordable housing program.[3] This become possible as another company has rehabilitated 30 apartments at Spring Creek Gardens complex in East New York and sold resulting tax benefits to the Zeckendorf Company.[4][5]

As of 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 and Cleveland Indians manager Manny Acta,[6] and Ex-President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari.[7]

As of 2007, the Hospital for Special Surgery continues 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 are 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, killing both occupants, Lidle and his flight instructor Tyler Stanger, and severely injuring one resident in the post impact fire. Initial fears that the incident was terrorist-related were unfounded, as confirmed by the FBI.

References
  1. The New York Times (Oct. 12, 2006): "Manhattan Plane Crash Kills Yankee Pitcher", by James Barron. The newspaper notes that despite numbering that designates Apartment 40ABG as where an airplane crashed on Oct. 11, 2006, that apartment is 30 flights of stairs from the sidewalk level.
  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. Mark Bulliet; Brian Lewis; Leela de Kretser (October 12, 2006). "HI-RISE HOUSES MOVERS, SHAKERS". New York Post. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved October 14, 2006.
  7. http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/05-Nov-2009/Why-hotels-when-you-have-Belaire-Mr-President Archived November 8, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. Asif Ali Zardari condominum in New York
  8. Lombino, David (November 12, 2006). "Architect of Unlucky Building Says He Was Confident It Would Stand". The New York Sun.
  9. CNN.com (Oct. 12, 2006, posted 1:20 a.m. EDT): "Yankees pitcher killed in crash of small plane in Manhattan"
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