But Extell Development Co., one of the five bidders, could not wait. It put up on its Web site six images—and a 59-page PDF of the entire presentation.

The plan, according to the copy, “maximizes public space and creates a porosity and openness for the site from all sides and approaches, connecting Midtown, the Chelsea Arts District, and the convention center with a grand public park open to the Hudson River; and its innovative structural system for spanning over the Rail Yards will minimize the impacts of development on the Caemmerer Yards and allow it to offer more for the right to develop.”