| Belaire Apartments | |
|---|---|
 Belaire Apartments in 2006 after a fire,caused by a plane crash, was extinguished. | |
 Interactive map of Belaire Apartments | |
| General information | |
| Location | 524East 72nd Street,Manhattan |
| Coordinates | 40°45′57″N73°57′08″W / 40.76583°N 73.95222°W /40.76583; -73.95222 |
| Completed | 1988 |
| Owner | Hospital for Special Surgery |
| Height | |
| Roof | 512 ft (156 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 42[1] |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Frank Williams and Associates |
| Developer | Zeckendorf Company |
Belaire Apartments (also known as theBelaire Condominiums andThe Belaire) is amixed-usehigh-risecondominiumapartment building inManhattan,New York City. The 42-story[1] building is located at 524East 72nd Street betweenYork Avenue and theFDR Drive.
It has 183condominium apartments, ahealth club,parking garage andswimming pool.[2] The first fourteen floors are used by theHospital for Special Surgery. The building has prominent views overlooking theEast River. It is 512 feet (156 m) tall.
It was designed by Frank Williams and Associates, and features a red brick facade. The building has areinforced concrete structure, making it one of the tallest concrete buildings at the time of its construction.
The building was completed in 1988 and was constructed by the Zeckendorf Company, on the site previously occupied by a parking garage owned by theHospital for Special Surgery.
After construction Belaire enjoyed reductions in itsproperty taxes for 10 years as a result of Section421-a tax exemption certificates, a New York Cityaffordable housing program.[3] This happened because another company renovated 30 apartments at the Spring Creek Gardens complex inEast New York and sold the tax benefits it accrued to the Zeckendorf Company.[4][5]
In October 2006 residents included novelistCarol Higgins Clark (38th floor); developer Arthur W. Zeckendorf (42nd floor); formerBloomingdale'sCEO andChairmanMarvin S. Traub; once-jailedjunk-bond kingIvan Boesky;Cigar Aficionado andWine Spectator magazines publisherMarvin R. Shanken;Cleveland GuardiansmanagerManny Acta;[6] and Pakistani politician (and later president)Asif Ali Zardari.[7]
As of 2007[update], the Hospital for Special Surgery continued 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 were still used for housing hospital staff and guests.[8] 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.
On October 11, 2006, a four-seat,Cirrus Design SR-20 single-enginefixed-wing aircraft owned byNew York Yankees pitcherCory Lidlecrashed into the apartment building.[9] The two occupants of the plane, Lidle and hisflight instructor Tyler Stanger, were both killed in the crash; one resident of the Belaire was severely injured in the resulting fire. TheNational Transportation Safety Board found that the likely cause of the crash waspilot error.
The plane bore into an apartment on the 30th floor, which under the building's numbering system is Apt. 40ABG