HDC is proud to be making our voice heard throughout the rezoning process known as the Midtown South Mixed-Used Plan (MSMX). The Plan, which proposes to rezone the Garment District, and three adjacent areas of Midtown South, may bring thousands of units of housing to the neighborhood, and also may threaten the neighborhood’s existing built fabric and longtime fashion manufacturing jobs.
In collaboration with our Six to Celebrate Partner, the New York Fashion Workforce Development Coalition (NYFWDC), and our preservation colleagues, we have continuously urged the City to improve this plan by supporting the garment industry and small businesses in the neighborhood, incentivizing the adaptive reuse of the area’s existing historic buildings into housing, and lowering the proposed residential FAR to eliminate the possibility of wide scale demolition.
Our recommendations seek to help maintain the well-paying jobs New Yorkers deserve, preserve the historic buildings that give the neighborhood its unmistakeable character, and create thousands of new units of housing in the neighborhood as quickly and sustainably as possible.
City agencies and elected officials already know that preservation tools and practices are at the forefront of the fight for more affordable housing, and a more sustainable city. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development already touts adaptive reuse and residential conversion as “a model for how to create new housing quickly, at a time where so many New Yorkers need an affordable place to live,” and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine has recently called adaptive reuse and office-to-residential conversion “one of the most exciting tools we have today to address our housing emergency,” noting that “conversions are also often faster and more sustainable than ground-up construction.”
The quickest and greenest way to house our neighbors is also the best way to ensure that historic treasures and neighborhood fabric of the Garment District remain intact. We know our elected officials are already aware of this, but City Planning has not yet turned knowledge into action, and included incentives for adaptive reuse, and support for garment manufacturing jobs in this plan. We are proud to continue to advocate so that preservation tools and practices help shape this rezoning, help house our neighbors, and help long-standing businesses remain in the neighborhood.
Read all of our MSMX letters and testimony below:
Rally for the Future of Midtown Handout, June 2025
Protect NYC’s Garment District, NYFWDC Coalition Letter to Department City Planning, May 2025
HDC Testimony before City Planning Commission, May 2025
HDC and New York Landmarks Conservancy Joint Letter to Department of City Planning, May 2025
HDC Letter to Landmarks Preservation Commission, May 2025