273-Foot-Tall Building Set For Third Avenue In Lenox Hill

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Plans for a new 273-foot-tall building have been filed for a vacant lot where two buildings faced the ball and chain last year.

Foundation work is already underway at 1026 Third Ave., between East 60th and 61st streets, where the new building will tower over its neighbors — and quite literally over one building also owned by developer Majid Kahen.

The 100,000-square-foot building will contain 81 units, averaging around 1,200-square-feet each. Crain's, who first reported on the early plans, wrote that Kahen Properties is mostly known for developing rental housing.

Buildings Department records show that Kahen Properties purchased air rights from neighboring 1028 Third Ave., home of longtime red-sauce mainstay Isle of Capri, and the building at the rear of the Kahen-owned lots, 170 Third Ave.

In February, plans for a much smaller seven-story building were filed, according to DOB records.

Kahen, through his company Kahen Properties, purchased the three buildings in July 2022 for $34 million, according to The Real Deal.

While two of the buildings have already been converted to dust, the remaining building, 1028 Third Ave., contains a Chipotle with a lease that runs for another six years, The Real Deal reported.

Brokers told the real estate site that at the time of purchase, Kahen had no immediate plans for building, as he was waiting out negotiations in Albany over a replacement to the developer tax break known as 421-a.

But the tax-break replacement, like much of Gov. Hochul's housing plans, did not come to pass, meaning that the development will be moving forward with a different financing plan.

Nor will the Chipotle pose a problem — drawings and renderings show that the new building will mass over the smaller, five-story building suddenly at the ninth floor.

A Kahen Properties rep was unable to comment on the development.

At the site, a sign states that the work should wrap up in the fall of 2024.