First Avenue Tower Rises in Lenox Hill, Draws Local Ire

A new 30-story tower now under construction on the corner of East 77th Street and First Ave. promises to contain 18 affordable rent stabilized apartments in an 89-unit rental building.

But to some local residents, the orange fencing and sidewalk shed outside 1482 First Avenue have become a daily reminder of what is coming and they are not happy. Inside a nearby shop, Theresa Fichera, owner of Taroo, a high end, curated clothing store, scrolled through photos on her phone showing crane installations, sidewalk closures and crowds of construction workers gathered outside her storefront.

The ongoing construction is disrupting her business. She stopped at a photo taken on a recent Saturday, normally one of her busiest days of the year. “I did $200 in business that day,” she said.

She worries the years-long construction project, which began last summer with the demolition of the two buildings and is not expected to be completed until the end of 2027, could drive away enough customers to put the business at risk.

”The sidewalk is closed. They rip the street up,” she said. “These big companies just come in and squash me like I’m a cockroach.”

The corner lot previously housed two low rise structures: a four story building that housed six apartments, two storefronts and next door a medical office building.

The plots that were co-joined to make way for the tower was acquired in two phases. Alchemy-ABR purchased 1484 First Avenue which housed a medical office building in an off-market deal for $20.8 million and 1482 First Ave. which contained three floors of residential apartments above to retail storefronts from the Parkoff Organization and Prize Network Group in August 2024, for a combined $34.225 million, according to the real estate site Pincus.

Alchemy-ABR was co-founded in 2015 by Joel Breitkopf, Brian Ray and Kenneth Horn as a partnership between Alchemy Properties and ABR Partners.

The construction cost of the new tower is hefty. YIMBY reports the developer, secured a $127 million two-part construction loan from Helaba to finance the new tower, which will set aside 18 rent-stabilized apartments for households earning up to 80 percent of area median income.

Just beyond Fichera’s front window, workers moved around the construction site where crews recently completed foundation work for the tower. A security guard said the below-grade phase is largely finished and vertical construction is expected to begin soon. “Come back in two weeks,” he said. “You’ll already see something.”

Unlike many large developments in New York City, the project never came before Community Board 8. “According to my review of our records, the project has not come before CB8 and there are no meeting minutes related to the project,” District Manager Ian McKnight told Our Town.

Because the development was built as-of-right under existing zoning, it did not require the public review process that accompanies rezonings and many other large projects.

The neighborhood community group, Friends of the Upper East Side, has been closely monitoring the proposal and recently reviewed the project’s renderings.

”As an organization committed to preserving neighborhood character and protecting affordable housing, we are concerned about the loss of the six existing naturally occurring, relatively affordable housing units that would be demolished as part of this development,” said Zeynep Turan, the organization’s director of preservation.

Turan acknowledged that the project would create rental housing rather than luxury condominiums and that it includes rent-stabilized apartments. However, she argued that the affordability component does not go far enough.

”We do not believe that the proposed affordability component—18 affordable units out of a total of 89 apartments, or approximately 20 percent—is sufficient,” she said. “FRIENDS would like to see a higher percentage of affordable housing, including units that are deeply affordable to low- and moderate-income New Yorkers.”

The organization also questioned the scale of the building. “The massing at the lower levels disrupts the established character and scale of this section of First Avenue,” Turan said. “We believe a more contextual design would have been achievable under the zoning framework that existed prior to the City of Yes amendments.”

Alchemy-ABR did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

The tower is not expected to be completed until late 2027. In the meantime, Fichera said customers are frequently forced to cross the street when construction activities close portions of the sidewalk.

Every day seems to bring a new disruption. “A porta potty, the truck comes to empty the porta potty, it stinks,” she said. “Who’s coming into my store?” She said she has repeatedly met with her landlord seeking relief as sales decline during construction.

”This store has been supporting me for 27 years,” she said, worried her business may not survive the construction.