NEW YORK CITY-As hungry developers move to the Far West Side andDowntown to construct glassy, state-of-the-art class A towers,soon, they may be coming back to build Manhattan’s core businessdistrict: the Grand Central submarket. After the New YorkCity Department of Planning unveiled plans to rezone partsof Madison and Lexington Avenues to allow taller skyscrapers inMidtown East last week, commercial real estatesources tell GlobeSt.com that the proposal will allow fordevelopers to build bigger—and better—buildings in close proximityto existing corporations, institutions and landmarks. But questionsabout whether the city’s aging infrastructure and transportationnetwork can support it remain to be seen.

Under the city’s proposal, properties near Grand Central betweenMadison and Lexington Avenues would be entitled to build as tall as900 feet, and properties on the west side of Madison and east sideof Lexington between East 39^th and 49^thstreets would be allowed to be as high as 700 feet, a Bloomberg reportshows. The rezoning – which isbeing pushed by the Bloomberg administration to keep Manhattancompetitive on a global scale against world economic powers likeTokyo, London and China – would encourage replacement of old officebuilding stock, especially near the station, which is surrounded bythe likes of art deco and prewar staples like the Chrysler Buildingand 230 Park Ave.

But as office stock continues to age and little to no newconstruction happening, the Midtown market is at a risk of becomingstagnant. “We are accustomed to the fact that most of this50-year-old building stock simply can’t be demolished, saysMichael T. Cohen, president of ColliersInternational’s Tri-State executive committee. “If youlook at all the re-skinning that’s been done or all the newconstruction overlaid on old construction, and there’s a long list,this is how the marketplace has coped with the reverse arbitragethat would arise if somebody tore down an existing building. Itjust doesn’t make any sense. In our most desirable Midtowncore, we should be able to create new product. We are out ofsites, we can’t tear down what exists, we’re stymied. Sowhere do we build? We built at the Hudson Yards, we build on EighthAvenue, we build on the Trade Centers. But companies want to be onSixth, Park and Madison. This is a historic inevitability.”