New 48-Story Tower to Rise at 120 Fulton Street

The Lightstone Group plans to start construction on a new 48-story residential and commercial building at 120 Fulton Street in the Financial District later this summer. The 463-unit tower will rise 524 feet between Nassau and Dutch streets, soaring above a block populated with mostly low-rise shops and apartment buildings. The construction is expected to take two to three years.

The existing five and six-story apartment buildings that will be demolished — from 112 to 120 Fulton St. — are home to chains including Radio Shack and Five Guys Burger and Fries, as well as several mom-and-pop shoe, clothes and jewelry stores.

The Lightstone Group plans to offer 93 apartments, or 20 percent of the units, as affordable housing, giving preference to current residents of Lower Manhattan.

The narrow street has seen substantial construction in the past couple of years. Just two blocks up, the massive, $1.4 billion Fulton Street Transit Center at Broadway remains in the works, saddling locals with years of construction-related street congestion.

Several of the mom-and-pop stores on the block are now plastered with “Going out of Business” signs. As for the tenants of the soon-to-be-demolished buildings, several said those were just the breaks of being a renter in the city.

The new development will also include nearly 20,000 square feet of retail space, but Lightstone said the current tenants aren’t being given any preference for space in the complex.

The Lightstone Group, one of the largest real estate groups in the country, has recently made some big moves into the city.

The developer is planning a 12-story luxury building on the Long Island City waterfront, as well as a 700-unit residential development along the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn.