A historic increase in New York City’s new building permits in 2015 and 2016, particularly in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, has created a recent boom in the city that has not been seen since the early 1960’s. The sudden urgently in the past few years to start breaking ground is partially due to a 421a tax abatement program, that was designed to expire on June 15th 2016. Under this program, in exchange for providing some affordable housing and completing each project by 2022, owners could potentially waive property taxes on these properties for
periods of 15-25 years.

All this new construction combined with ongoing repairs from hurricane Sandy,
existing projects, and recent infrastructure upgrades including bridges, roads,
and water pipes, turned NYC into one large construction site.