Air Rights in New York City are a Big Deal...people make Fortunes!

 Another great example of air rights! A skyscraper is cantilevered over a historic building that sold their air rights.

In a city like New York air rights are a big deal. There are law firms that do almost nothing but negotiate "air rights." It started in the late 1800s/early 1900s...people loved their views from the new skyscrapers but what happens when you suddenly lose your view because some a-hole builds a tower next door?
Zoning laws were enacted to create air rights...all over Manhattan I can show you buildings like this that were built over or around. Small buildings like this are called real estate "holdouts" but historic buildings like mansions, theatres, churches can all sell their air rights and make fortunes doing it.
The Vanderbilts owned Grand Central and the New York Central Railroad and all the railroad yards in and out of Grand Central. They created Park Avenue in the air rights over the 2-level train tracks and sold the air rights to developers who built fancy homes, clubs, apartments, offices, etc. There are NO BASEMENTS On Park Avenue because it's all train tracks underground.
And every building on Park Avenue has RUBBER in the foundations to soften the thundering train sounds under the fancy buildings.
On the corner of 49th Street & Sixth Avenue is a little building from 1870, once a pub. That building was the only holdout when John D. Rockefeller Jr. bought 200 old buildings to demolish them for Rock Center's 19 skyscrapers. They refused to sell but agreed to sell their air rights-- this is so no owner of the building in the future can build a skyscraper and block out the windows of 30 Rockefeller Center.
You're basically buying the view! In New York notice buildings with one or two entire sides of brick..NO WINDOWS. This is because they couldn't secure the air rights and they know sooner or later someone will build a skyscraper up against them and views will be lost--- so why put them there in the first place?

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