Under a new plan, the Sanitation Department trucks that will likely soon be parking in a new garage in Kips Bay could be sharing their home with biotech startups and health care companies.
According to a 2012 proposal made under the Bloomberg administration, the city planned to erect a $200 million sanitation garage in the middle of a block bordered by First Avenue, the FDR Drive, and East 25th and East 26th streets. The project, which was designed to house 150 sanitation vehicles ranging from garbage trucks to street sweepers and salt spreaders, was met with almost immediate indignation from locals and stiff criticism from Councilman Dan Garodnick.
Crain's has learned that Mr. Garodnick, who represents Kips Bay and who chairs the council's Economic Development Committee, has worked out a deal with the city's Economic Development Corp. that would make any Kips Bay sanitation garage part of a much larger development project. The new plan will take three parcels of land on the block and pitch them to prospective developers as single, full-block site on what has become the thriving heart of the city's biotechnology sector.