Garment District. Photo © Ondel Hylton
The plan to transform Midtown South into dynamic mixed-use neighborhoods with thousands of new homes is moving forward. Mayor Eric Adams and the Department of City Planning (DCP) on Tuesday announced the start of the public review process for the Midtown South Mixed-Use (MSMX) plan, a proposal to rezone 42 blocks of the neighborhood to allow for roughly 9,700 new homes in areas where housing was largely prohibited under old zoning rules. The rezoning is part of the mayor’s “Manhattan Plan” introduced in his State of the City address last week to add 100,000 new homes to the borough over the next decade.
First announced by Adams last August, the rezoning covers four quadrants of Midtown Manhattan between 23rd and 40th Street and 5th and 8th Avenues, an area home to more than 7,000 businesses and 135,000 jobs.
The neighborhood has long been an economic hub but has struggled to recover since the pandemic, with many office buildings remaining vacant and restrictive zoning rules preventing the construction of new housing.
The rezoning proposal would use new zoning tools, the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, passed by the Council late last year, and the lifting of the state’s floor area ratio (FAR) cap, which limited housing density. The city’s proposal maps new high-density, mixed-use zoning districts, R-11 and R-12, with FAR caps of 15 and 18, allowing for larger developments, alongside commercial and industrial businesses.
The proposal also designates Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) Areas that require permanently income-restricted housing in Midtown for the first time and lifts outdated rezoning restrictions to allow for office-to-residential conversions.
The city projects the rezoning to lead to 9,700 new homes, including up to 2,890 performantly affordable units. According to The Real Deal, about 781 of the new homes will be from office-to-residential conversions.
“We envision for Midtown South a vibrant and dynamic, 24-7 neighborhood with a strong commercial core right alongside brand-new homes for New Yorkers, and we need to change our outdated zoning rules to make it all happen,” DCP Director and CPC Chair Garodnick.
“We developed this plan in partnership with elected officials and community members and we hope they will continue to make their voices heard as public review now gets underway.”
The MSMX plan would also create a new special zoning district, the “Special Midtown South Mixed-Use District,” designed to ensure that new, higher-density residential buildings align with the neighborhood’s character and feature active street fronts with elements such as ground-floor retail.
“It’s time to envision a new future for Midtown. The Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan is the next step in realizing the dream of a neighborhood designed for everyone,” Council Member Keith Powers said in a statement.
“This plan will unlock badly needed housing in an area that historically hasn’t allowed it, transforming Midtown into a vibrant live-work neighborhood humming with activity. I look forward to proceeding through the public review process with this innovative plan for Midtown’s future.”
As part of the plan, office-to-residential conversions would be expedited by allowing office buildings constructed before 1990 to be converted to housing. The current cut-off for conversions is 1961 or 1977, depending on the area. This would free up 136 million square feet of office space across the city to become new homes.
Outside of the immediate plan area, the zoning proposal would also remove existing housing restrictions in some mid-block areas from West 35th to West 39th Streets.
The launch of the public review process starts the city’s approximately seven-month Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, which includes input from community boards, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, followed by hearings and votes by the City Planning Commission and City Council.
“Today marks an important step forward for a plan that could help create badly needed housing and reinvigorate some of Manhattan’s core,” Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said.
“I’m excited to see a proposal that will guarantee new affordable housing production and spur public realm improvements while encouraging a more 24/7, mixed-use neighborhood. The public review process will be important for balancing our desperate housing need with public realm improvements and support for local businesses, and I encourage New Yorkers to share their thoughts and help shape the future of Midtown South.”
The MSMX plan is a key component of Adams’ “Manhattan Plan,” which the mayor announced during his 2025 State of the City address earlier this month. The plan aims to utilize the zoning tools included in Adams’ “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” plan to create 100,000 new homes across Manhattan, bringing the total of homes in the borough to one million , in the next decade.
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