On May 14, Vornado Realty Trust and Stellar Management filed plans with the New York City Department of City Planning for a 72-story, 976-unit tower at 310 Greenwich Street in Tribeca. The filing, first reported by PincusCo, ends a year of speculation about the expansion of Independence Plaza, a three-building complex that already houses 1,328 units.
The joint venture is pushing a modification of the existing site plan, not a zoning change. That distinction allows the developers to bypass the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, or ULURP, a process that can take 18 months and is subject to community board and council member veto. The project will still require an environmental review and other approvals.
The filing comes as the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity legislation, which passed in December 2024, reshapes the city's zoning code. The law allows for more density and eliminates parking mandates, but its effect on individual projects has been uneven. For Independence Plaza, the new rules appear to have unlocked a path forward without a full rezoning fight.
The affordable housing component is the most consequential detail in the filing. Under the Universal Affordability Preference program, the developers can either include 251 affordable units within the new tower or build them off-site. That flexibility is a direct product of City of Yes, which expanded UAP to allow for more creative compliance strategies.
Community opposition has already surfaced. A contentious 2024 meeting saw residents raise concerns about construction noise, dust, and potential structural risk to historic townhouses nearby. The developers have pledged $15 million in community benefits over the next two years, on top of the $33 million they have already spent on upgrades to the existing complex in the last five years.
The financial architecture of the project is anchored by a $675 million CMBS loan secured in 2025. The five-year floating-rate loan, provided by a consortium including Deutsche Bank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley, replaced a seven-year, $675 million loan from Goldman Sachs that was securitized in 2018. The refinancing closed in a market where single-asset, single-borrower CMBS deals have become the preferred vehicle for large, stabilized multifamily assets.
The 2018 Goldman loan was structured as a SASB deal, a format that has grown in popularity as lenders seek to avoid the complexity of multi-borrower pools. The 2025 refinancing follows the same playbook, suggesting that the lenders view Independence Plaza as a low-risk, cash-flowing asset. The complex is 40 percent rent-regulated or affordable, which provides a natural hedge against market-rate volatility.
Vornado bought a majority stake in the complex in 2012, with the explicit goal of converting at least half the units to market rate. Stellar Management, which bought into the property in 2003 when it transitioned out of the Mitchell-Lama program, has been the operating partner. The complex includes 55,000 square feet of retail space and amenities such as a fitness center, pool, and children's playroom.
The decision to bypass ULURP is a strategic bet on speed. The developers are betting that the environmental review and community benefits package will be sufficient to mollify local opposition without the political risk of a public hearing process. That calculation is easier to make in a post-City of Yes environment, where the city's zoning code is more permissive by default.
The 976-unit tower, if built, would be one of the largest residential buildings in Tribeca. The existing complex already dominates the neighborhood's skyline. The expansion would cement Independence Plaza as a superblock-scale development in a neighborhood that has become one of the most expensive in Manhattan.
The filing is a signal that the institutional multifamily development pipeline is reviving after a two-year lull caused by high interest rates and regulatory uncertainty. Vornado and Stellar are moving forward with a project that was first telegraphed in 2025 but lacked detail. The City of Yes legislation provided the regulatory clarity; the CMBS market provided the capital. Both conditions are now in place.
The question for lenders and investors is whether the demand for 976 new units in Tribeca will materialize at the rents required to service a $675 million loan. The existing complex's 40 percent affordable component provides a cushion, but the market-rate units will need to command premium rents in a city where rent growth has slowed. The developers are betting that Tribeca's cachet and the scarcity of new supply will carry the day.