A parking garage sitting in the shadow of the Queensboro Bridge could soon disappear, as a proposed air-rights deal makes way for a residential tower at 403 East 60th Street in Manhattan. The site's owner, Shalimar Management, is looking to sell the property, setting up a potential transformation of the property from a parking garage to a residential tower.
News of the potential deal comes from Crain's New York, which reports that the air-rights arrangement could pave the way for a residential tower to rise where the garage now stands. The outlet reports that Shalimar Management is actively looking to sell the East 60th Street garage, while a possible air-rights arrangement could pave the way for redevelopment.
A Long-Held Upper East Side Parcel
The 403 East 60th Street site has been under Shalimar's ownership for roughly a decade. According to a 2014 report from The Real Deal, the company purchased the garage site for $31.5 million, which the outlet noted was more than $7 million above the property's $24 million asking price at the time. The report's headline rounded the purchase price to $32 million.
What isn't in dispute is the location: the property sits close to the Queensboro Bridge, and the garage could potentially give way to redevelopment. Whether that decade-old purchase price still reflects the garage's current value, or what Shalimar might now be asking, has not been reported.
What the Zoning Rules Could Mean
Any residential redevelopment in New York City would need to reckon with the city's accessory parking rules. Citywide zoning text, per the NYC Zoning Resolution, requires that permitted or required accessory off-street parking spaces conform to a specific set of provisions, with special regulations carved out for certain large-scale community-facility and residential developments.
Separately, the zoning code also addresses parking requirements in some of the city's higher-density residential districts. For zoning lots in R8 through R12 districts, the resolution reduces the parking requirement per standard dwelling unit to 20 percent on lots between 10,001 and 15,000 square feet, and waives it entirely on lots of 10,000 square feet or less.
Questions That Remain Unanswered
Much about the proposed project is still undetermined. The scope of the potential tower — including its height, unit count, affordability components, design, or timeline — has not been reported. Likewise, the structure of the air-rights deal itself, including who the involved parties are, its current status, or any closing date, has not been disclosed.
The garage's present-day capacity, assessed value, asking price, and sale status beyond Shalimar's stated interest in selling also remain unreported. For now, the site's future hinges on a deal that is still taking shape, with the Queensboro Bridge as its most visible landmark and a decade of Shalimar ownership as its backdrop.
