Belaire Apartments

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Information
Belaire apartments

Location	524 East 72nd Street, Manhattan
Status	Complete
Constructed	1988
Height
Roof	512 feet (156 meters)
Technical Details
Floor count	50
Companies
Architect	Frank Williams and Associates
Developer	Zeckendorf Company
Owner	Hospital for Special Surgery

Location of the Belaire Apartments

Belaire Apartments (also known as the Belaire Condominiums and The Belaire) is a mixed-use high-rise condominium apartment building in Manhattan, New York City. The 50 story building is located at 524 E. 72nd Street between York Avenue and the FDR Drive. It has 183 condominium apartments, a health club, parking garage and pool ^[1]. The first twenty-one floors are used by the Hospital for Special Surgery. The building has prominent views overlooking the East River. It is 512 feet tall (156 meters).

The building was completed in 1988, and was constructed by the Zeckendorf Company, on the site previously occupied by a parking garage owned by the Hospital for Special Surgery. It was designed by Frank Williams and Associates, and features a red brick facade. The building has a reinforced concrete structure, making it one of the tallest concrete buildings at the time of its construction.

The Hospital for Special Surgery continues to own the land, and in exchange for selling the development rights to Zeckendorf, it received use of the lower 12 floors for offices. Originally, nurses and technicians were housed there, as these individuals had a difficult time finding affordable housing in New York. Floors 13-22 are still used for housing hospital staff and guests.^[2] The Belaire also houses office and laboratory space, sports injury rehabilitation areas, and guest facilities for family members of patients at the Hospital to which it is connected via a causeway on the third floor.

After construction Belaire enjoyed property taxes reduction for 10 years as result of Section 421a tax-abatement certificates, a New York City affordable housing program^[3]. This become possible as another company has rehabilitated 30 apartments at Spring Creek Gardens complex in East New York and sold resulting tax benefits to the Zeckendorf Company.^[4]^[5]

As of October 2006, residents included novelist Carol Higgins Clark (38th floor); developer Arthur W. Zeckendorf (42nd floor); former Bloomingdale's CEO and Chairman Marvin S. Traub; once-jailed junk-bond king Ivan Boesky; Cigar Aficionado and Wine Spectator magazines publisher Marvin R. Shanken and Washington Nationals manager Manny Acta.^[6]

1 Plane crash
2 Education
3 External links
- 3.1 Building information

[edit] Plane crash

Main article: October 11, 2006 New York City plane crash

On October 11, 2006, a fixed-wing airplane owned by New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle crashed into the apartment building, killing two people including Lidle himself. The crash started a fire and initial fears that it was terrorism-related. The FBI immediately stated the plane crash was not an act of terrorism. Aboard the plane, flown out of Teterboro Airport, in New Jersey, were Lidle and flight instructor Tyler Stanger.