A Brutalist-style city office building in Lower Manhattan is slated for a transformation — the likes of which New York City has never seen.
The city Economic Development Corporation is teaming up with a developer GFP Real Estate to demolish the building at 100 Gold St. and replace it with a supersized development at a rare scale for a residential project.
The proposed project will consist of two towers attached at a podium base, containing as many as 4,000 total apartments. One tower will be about 115 stories high and the other about 78 stories high.
Buildings of that size that exist in New York City now are not solely filled with rental apartments. And the city’s famous supertall residential towers contain fewer apartments overall.
The two towers planned for 100 Gold St. may rise as high as 1,250 feet and 860 feet, respectively. In comparison, the Empire State Building, from ground to roof, is 1,250 feet tall. The Central Park Tower rises 1,550 feet and claims to be the tallest apartment building in the world (it has under 180 condos).
But city officials contend that the extent of the housing crisis requires a vigorous response, one that would allow apartment buildings to rival the size of office buildings.
Howard Slatkin, executive director of the nonprofit Citizens Housing and Planning Council, called the 100 Gold vision “a paradigm shift” in the size and density of new housing developments.
“We need to think about ways to accommodate more housing in New York City, and to get beyond previously imposed limitations. How far beyond? This proposal poses that question in a very tangible way,” he said.
The eye-popping proposal caught the attention of some Lower Manhattan residents during a Community Board meeting on Oct. 5.
“I think it would be fair to say, correct me if I’m wrong, that this is the single most dense — from a dwelling-unit perspective — building in the history of New York City, right? This is density on steroids, isn’t it?” asked board member Patrick Kennell.
Brian Steinwurtzel, CEO and principal of GFP Development, made the case that the future 100 Gold would look very much like other developments New Yorkers are familiar with now.
“There are plenty of buildings in the Financial District and this community board district that are built to that density,” he said. “They just happen to be built as office buildings primarily.”
A Population Boom?
The quest to redevelop 100 Gold began under Mayor Eric Adams, whose administration picked GFP Real Estate out of several firms to do the job. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration said it wanted to maximize the housing on site as part of a plan to build 200,000 affordable apartments by 2036.
“A crisis demands a bold response,” said Diana Switaj, vice president of government and community relations at EDC, during the October community board meeting. “The city’s response has always been, let’s take an underutilized city site and really maximize it for housing and affordable housing.”
The city-owned building nestled beneath the Brooklyn Bridge currently houses the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, as well as other agencies and a senior center. The EDC said the current building would have needed costly repairs, and the proceeds from the sale would pay for the relocation of city workers.
The planned 4,000 apartments dwarf what’s in other buildings. For instance, 25 Water Street, a former office in Fi-Di, has 1,320 apartments, and a new development in Midtown contains 1,175 apartments. Across the river, a three-tower complex in Jersey City has about 1,800 apartments. In Chicago, a two-tower development rises nearly 900 feet high and includes over 1,700 apartments.
“It is pretty big for New York City! Arguably the biggest in a holistic sense,” Stephen Smith, executive director of the Center for Building in North America, wrote in an email. “But in my opinion, appropriately big for the site and the housing crisis this city is in.”
Smith surmised 100 Gold’s planned 4,000 apartments could be the highest unit count for a building in the country, but that over two towers, the development wouldn’t “feel like a single building.” Almost half of 100 Gold’s site is planned as open space.
There are plenty of buildings in New York City built to a similar density as what’s proposed for 100 Gold, and they all contain office space. They include the 72-story Trump Building at 40 Wall Street, an office tower across from the flagship New York Public Library and the 40-story Equitable Building in Fidi, which contains condos plus office space.
The project at 100 Gold is expected to bring about 8,080 residents to the neighborhood, increasing the Financial District’s population by about 10%. That could just be the beginning of a population boom.
As part of the application, the development team is also seeking to allow future developers on certain sites in Lower Manhattan to construct apartment buildings as dense as what’s proposed for 100 Gold, if they apply for land use changes.
‘First Proposal Is Never Final’
The 100 Gold redevelopment is expected to be self-funded, and not rely on any public subsidies. The developers will instead participate in a tax abatement program called 485-x that requires a building of that size to designate a quarter of the total apartments as rent-stabilized and permanently affordable to households making about $102,000 for a family of four or an individual making $71,280.
The 485-x program has spurred a proliferation of buildings with 99 apartments or fewer to avoid wage requirements that kick in for bigger projects, as The City Reporter previously detailed. To date, less than 1% — just four buildings — of projects that registered for the tax credit will include more than 100 apartments in them, according to the latest data. If 100 Gold proceeds as expected, it would join that small group.
“We will be one of the first and hopefully not only 485-x projects that exceeds 99 units,” Steinwurtzel said during a Manhattan Community Board presentation earlier this month.
Some locals, elected officials and housing experts have argued that public subsidies should enable the project to include more apartments for New Yorkers with even lower incomes. Switaj of EDC indicated any proceeds beyond what would go towards relocating city workers would be reinvested into the project, with the possibility to increase affordable housing.
When Councilmember Christopher Marte (D-Manhattan) threw his support behind the redevelopment of 100 Gold in 2025 as a condition of the city not pursuing long-planned affordable senior housing at Elizabeth Street Garden, only about 1,200 apartments were envisioned for the site.
Faced with the currently proposed development, Marte emphasized the project could further evolve.
“The first proposal is never the final,” Marte told The City Reporter. “There’s a lot of conversations and due diligence that has to be done before we get to a final product.”
The project will need to go through the city’s lengthy environmental review process before construction can begin. The development team expects that process to start in March, and if approved, 100 Gold would be demolished in 2030, after city workers relocate, with the new development slated for completion by 2037.
Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.
The post The Densest Apartment Building in the US Could Be Coming to FiDi appeared first on The City Reporter.
