LotsFinder: New York City - Investment Opportunities

Each lot colored by its real NYC Dept. of Finance building classification (the same field this app's own ledger uses) - one fixed color per broad use category, listed in the map key below rather than a min/max range since this isn't a continuous value. A mixed-use building with ground-floor retail is colored by its residential ownership (condo/coop or rental), not as commercial - the retail is incidental to what the building mostly is.

Cross-checks the Building-use category above against each building's own Local Law 97 energy-benchmarking filing (self-reported by the owner, real and structured, but only required for buildings 25,000 sf and up - only a few percent of lots have one, far more in Manhattan, where large buildings are common). Green means the two agree; red flags a real disagreement worth a second look - e.g. a condo whose LL97 filing reports "Hotel" (BldgClass only captures the condo ownership structure, not that it's actually operated as a hotel). Grey means there's no LL97 filing to compare against, not that the Use is wrong.

Same colors and categories as the plain Building use (per zoning) layer above, except a lot flagged "Possible mismatch" by Use validation (LL97) is recolored by what LL97 actually reports instead of the BldgClass-derived guess - e.g. 180 Orchard St shows as Hotel here, not Condo/co-op. Those corrected lots are also outlined in red so it's obvious which ones were overridden. Same 5.6%-coverage caveat as Use validation (LL97): a lot with no LL97 filing keeps its original BldgClass-derived color, since there's nothing to correct it with. Property types are applied too: a dormitory or SRO is Residential rental (also when only its LL97 filing says dormitory), nursing homes, assisted living and other senior buildings (NY State DOH licences, senior living filings) are Senior housing, hotels, condo hotels and buildings of mostly registered short-term rentals are Hotel / hospitality, and an LL97 "Hotel" filing by a shelter in an apartment building is not taken as a hotel. For the full sub-types, see Building use (LL97 corrected) - Sub-segment under Area supporting info.

Green, more opaque = taller today's real building already is, from this platform's own measured roof height per lot. A vacant/short lot stays nearly invisible.

Orange, more opaque = higher max FAR (the higher of this lot's Residential/Commercial/Facility FAR, the same figure the Development Envelope section uses). Each lot is labeled with its own zoning district - overlay first, e.g. "C2-5/R8", plus a second district if the lot is genuinely split-zoned - and that FAR value. MIH and MSMX aren't offered as separate bonus toggles: MIH's bonus only exists once a future rezoning/variance actually happens (nothing to show today), and this dataset has no separate MSMX bonus figure to draw from. UAP is the one program with a real, already-computed bonus this layer can show.

Purple, more opaque = more unused buildable sf / more additional floors it could roughly support (unused sf ÷ lot area - a coarse "floors worth of leftover FAR" estimate, not a real massing study). Zero-unused lots stay nearly invisible. A dashed dark outline flags a lot with a recorded zoning-lot/air-rights instrument on file (ACRIS ZONE/DECM/AIRRIGHT/DEVR) - its real unused FAR may already be committed elsewhere, since this figure is pure zoning arithmetic with no adjustment for air rights already sold or merged away (see that lot's own "Zoning lot & air-rights recordings" panel section for details).

Teal, more opaque = a taller max building height this lot's own zoning district allows under the Quality Housing compliance path (NYC Zoning Resolution §23-432/433, the same real table the Development Envelope section and 3D massing model use) - one standard figure per district, not adjusted for a specific lot's street width or MIH/UAP eligibility the way a real site-specific massing is, so treat this as that ONE compliance path's own upper bound, not a guaranteed number for any one lot. Most R9/R9D/R10/R10X/R11/R12 districts (and their commercial/Mixed-Use equivalents - e.g. C5-3, the zoning behind 157 W 57 St) are ALSO eligible for Tower Regulations (ZR §23-435), a separate compliance path with no flat height cap at all - real supertalls on this map legally exceed the figure shown here. Click a flagged lot's own panel for that disclosure; this map layer still only colors by the Quality Housing figure.

Shows the more recent of PLUTO's two alteration-year fields (YearAlter1/2) per lot. A lot with no alteration on file has no real year to place on this range, so it never shows in this color mode - only the "Score" or "Building age" mode covers it.

Yellow → brown, more brown = more units (PLUTO). "Est. rent-stabilized" uses DOF's own billed-apartment-count - a real public-record proxy (the same figure behind the panel's own rent-stabilization estimate), not a FOIL'd DHCR rent roll.

Pink → red, more red = more square feet (PLUTO). Commercial SF only uses PLUTO's own ComArea field - most residential-only lots will show pale/uncolored under that toggle, which is expected.

The real zoning district boundary lines NYC Dept. of City Planning maps (the same layer ZoLa itself draws), independent of tax lot lines - so on a genuinely split-zoned lot, this shows exactly where within the lot one district ends and the other begins, rather than just the two district names the "Zoning + FAR" label lists. Updated from DCP monthly; this app's own copy may lag a very recent rezoning by up to that long.

Green = Final CO on file. Amber = the most recent CO on file is a Temporary (TCO) that hasn't been superseded by a Final. Red = no CO of any kind on file despite an active new-building filing. Grey = a CO exists but its source (DOB NOW) doesn't track whether it was Temporary or Final - only the older "DOB Certificate Of Occupancy" dataset carries that distinction.

DOB's Stalled Construction Sites complaint log has no status field - it's a daily re-publish of DOB's own internal list, so the same complaint keeps reappearing every day DOB still considers it stalled, then stops. Red = DOB itself last still listed this within the last 30 days and no CO has been issued since. Amber = there's complaint history here, but DOB appears to have stopped listing it as currently stalled.

Highlights lots with a boiler defect found on its latest DOB NOW Safety Boiler inspection - the single most actionable flag here (an active elevator with no defect isn't itself a distress signal). See this lot's own panel for elevator count/latest Cat.1 filing and full boiler detail. Part of the approved "DOB plan" Tier 3 - cranes & derricks permits were also part of Tier 3 but have no cleanly BBL/BIN-joinable open dataset, so aren't included.

An estimate, not an official rating: each building's class within its own type, scored 0 to 100 from what LotsFinder measures - age or renovation, height and floor size, ceiling height, corner and avenue frontage, landmark status, elevators, energy performance, rent regulation, and how its sale price, loan amount and city tax value per sq ft compare with the neighborhood. Office: Trophy (A+), A, B+, B, C. Apartments: A (new or gut-renovated, market-rate), B, C (older walk-up or regulated). Retail: prime corridor, avenue or main street, neighborhood or side street. Hotels: upscale or luxury, midscale or economy. One color family per type, darker for the higher class. Grey = no estimate (other uses such as homes, industrial or institutions, or not enough data). Click a lot to see its class, score, confidence and main factors in Lot details.

Each lot colored by its property type and sub-type: residential rental (elevator, walk-up, apartments over stores, student housing, SRO), residential ownership (condo, co-op, one/two-family home), senior housing (independent living, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing), hospitality (luxury, full-service, boutique, limited-service, extended-stay and apartment hotels, condo hotels, hostels, motels, private clubs, furnished suites / short-term rental buildings), then office / commercial, institutional, industrial and vacant land / parking. One color family per type, darker for the larger or more intensive kind. Starts from the city's building class and is corrected by the building's own LL97 energy filing (e.g. a dorm or a condo hotel), NY State DOH care-facility licences and short-term rental registrations - the same rules as the Building use - LL97-corrected layer. Use the checkboxes below to show only some building types or estimated building classes (see Building class (estimated) above); unchecked lots turn grey. Numbers next to the boxes count the lots in the selected area (or everywhere, with no area picked). Until the next map data refresh, lots without a sub-type on the map are typed from their building class.

A potential leverage indicator only, requiring further validation - not a fact. The current owner's recorded debt (senior loan, CEMA refinances at their consolidated amount, assumed loans, and junior loans recorded on top; face amounts at recording, not reduced for paydown) divided by the platform's estimated market value. The value comes from one valuation engine: the most similar recent sales adjusted to the property, and where it applies an income approach, reconciled into one value with a likely range and a grade A to D for how strong the evidence is. Only grade A and B values get a leverage tier on this map. A grade C value gets no tier here (its lot's panel shows the figure with a warning), and a grade D value gets none at all ("value too uncertain"). Co-op buildings use the rental basis (what the building's own lender underwrites); condo buildings, valued as the sum of their apartments, have no single owner or building mortgage and get no Implied LTV unless the sponsor still holds units. A mortgage recorded jointly against multiple parcels is excluded from a single lot's own total and, where the group's values are confident enough, replaced with a value-proportional share across the group - see that lot's own panel. Construction loans are never compared with as-is value. Gray = no tier. Essentially no UCC1 (mezzanine) filing records a dollar amount, so a lot with active mezzanine debt shows a senior-only figure that understates its true leverage - see that lot's own panel (Financing & liens) for whether mezz debt is present. NOT an appraisal.

Estimated current annual property tax = this lot's own latest taxable assessed value (NYC DOF's own live valuation file) x that fiscal year's published citywide rate for this lot's tax class. This is NOT a guaranteed exact bill - it misses direct dollar-for-dollar reductions applied to the bill itself rather than to assessed value, the two biggest being the co-op/condo abatement (up to ~28.1%) and STAR, neither of which is a clean numeric field in the source data. Gray = no valuation/tax history on file for this lot. See this lot's own panel for the year-by-year history and a slider to scrub through it.

Green, more green = higher tract median household income (2020-2024 ACS 5-year estimate, at this lot's own Census tract) - real market-fundamentals context (population, income, household trends), the same figures already in this lot's own panel and Market Summary. Tract-scale context (many lots share one tract), not a fact about any one lot or household.

Red, more red = more NYPD complaints in this lot's own police precinct (full calendar year 2025) - a raw count, not a per-capita rate (precinct size/population vary a lot), and a reported complaint, not a conviction. This is precinct-scale context (dozens of lots share one precinct), not a fact about any one lot.

Pink → magenta, more magenta = a higher % of students proficient (Level 3-4) on the 2023 NY State exam, at this lot's own DOE-zoned school - the most recent test results NYC has published. A real state-test proficiency rate, not a formal school "rating" (NYC hasn't published simple letter-grade ratings since ~2015); a zone maps to one "priority" school, not necessarily the only enrollment option in a choice-based district.

Blue → red, more red = more modeled foot traffic - a proxy combining two real, free, government-published sources, NOT a measured device/pedestrian count on this lot: (1) real annual subway ridership (MTA, 2025) at every station within a real 0.5mi walk, distance-weighted; (2) NYC DOT's own Pedestrian Mobility Plan corridor tier for this lot's nearest street (Baseline Street through Global Corridor - a real, official, full-city classification built from transit/parks/schools/business/tourist-destination data, not a traffic count). The higher of the two (not an average) sets the final score, so a lot strong on either real signal reads warm. DOT's tiers are a multi-year planning document and may lag a very recent corridor's rise or decline.

Teal, more teal = closer to more real, current MTA Capital Program projects (2020-2024 + 2025-2029 plans only, distance-weighted within 0.5mi) - a forward-looking planned-investment signal, distinct from Traffic warmth above (today's ridership/corridor classification). A nearby project might have no visible footprint (e.g. a signal system upgrade), so treat this as real context, not a guaranteed price driver.

Grey → orange-red, more red = more recent DOB permit activity - a "hot construction activity" heatmap derived entirely from DOB permit data already on this platform, no new source. For each neighborhood: New Building/Alteration-CO/Demolition permits issued in the last 24 months, as a rate per 100 lots, percentile-ranked against every other neighborhood LotsFinder covers. Every lot in a neighborhood shows that neighborhood's own score - this is an area-level signal, not a per-lot measurement.

FEMA's own official National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL) zone for this lot, from FEMA's live effective-maps service - not a NYC/NYS Open Data mirror. "Special Flood Hazard Area" (SFHA, red shades) is FEMA's regulatory 1%-annual-chance (100-year) floodplain - the trigger for federal flood insurance requirements and NYC's flood-resistant construction code; "Coastal high-hazard (VE)" and "Floodway (AE)" are its two most severe sub-designations. "Moderate risk" (yellow) is FEMA's 500-year (0.2%-annual-chance) floodplain, outside the SFHA. These are FEMA's own effective maps, updated on FEMA's own irregular per-county remap schedule, not a live sensor feed.

NYC's official Coastal Zone Boundary (Waterfront Revitalization Program, WRP). A lot inside is subject to WRP consistency review on discretionary actions, and is where the Zoning Resolution's waterfront bulk/setback rules (Article VI, Chapter 2 - required shore public walkways, visual corridors, height/setback modifications) can apply. The real, mapped proxy for waterfront-zoning relevance - the exact "waterfront zoning lot" test is a case-by-case adjacency determination, not its own separate GIS layer.

Mayor's Office of Environmental Remediation (OER) records: red = an active Voluntary Cleanup Program/E-Designation Restrictive Declaration enrollment (NYC's own "brownfield" program); amber = an E-Designation on file (a zoning-action-triggered environmental requirement - hazardous materials, high ambient noise, or air emission concerns) with no active cleanup underway. Neither is itself proof of current contamination, but both are real remediation-cost/construction-risk signals directly relevant to underwriting.

NYC Dept. of City Planning's own ZAP (Zoning Application Portal) project tracker, filtered to applications that include a Zoning Map Amendment (ZM) action - a forward-looking upside signal distinct from the static, PLUTO-derived zoning shown elsewhere on this platform. Amber = an application currently Active (any public-review stage, from filing through City Council vote); green = a ZM the City Council approved within the last 3 years. DCP's own tracked status can lag a real-world filing update by weeks, and this only covers ULURP-track map amendments - a text-only rezoning (no map change) or an as-of-right change won't show up here. Older Complete, Withdrawn, or Terminated applications aren't treated as a live signal.

NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission's own designated-buildings register - an enrichment of this platform's existing Protected/landmark status (from PLUTO), not a replacement or a scoring change. Adds LPC's real 4-way type split - Individual Landmark, Historic District, Interior Landmark, and Scenic Landmark - including the two categories (Interior, Scenic) that PLUTO's own Landmark/HistDist fields cannot represent at all. No pending-hearing-calendar data exists anywhere in this dataset (LPC has no structured live source for that); every record shown here is a completed designation.

Yellow → purple, more purple = more 311 noise complaints (Residential/Commercial/Street-Sidewalk/Vehicle, etc.) filed at this exact lot in the trailing 12 months - a residential-appeal proxy, not a measured decibel level. A real complaint, not a confirmed violation; a building with more units naturally has more opportunities to generate one.

NYC Dept. of Small Business Services (SBS) BID boundaries - a commercial-corridor investment/maintenance signal. A BID levies its own additional assessment on member properties to fund sanitation, marketing, streetscape improvements, and security beyond baseline city services.

Yellow → orange, more orange = higher modeled rooftop solar generation potential, estimated from this lot's own real building-footprint area (NREL module density × typical usable-roof coverage × NY Solar Map's own documented NYC generation assumption) - NOT a shading/orientation-aware assessment like NYC's own official Solar Map. Relevant to LL97 compliance strategy on existing buildings.