By Matt Chaban 10/16/12 9:00pm

Skyscraper Living

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Goldstein, Hill & West: How New York’s Most Anonymous Architects Have Taken Over the Skyline

The sun was setting over New York harbor, and behind it, the coast of New Jersey. From the 17th floor of 11 Broadway, through the not-floor-to-ceiling, turn-of-the-last-century office windows, the Statue of Liberty was plainly visible. She appeared to be waving through the late-summer haze. Milling about and sipping champagne were some of the city’s biggest developers and their employees, names emblazoned upon apartment towers from this end of Manhattan to the other and beyond.

Silverstein, Ratner, Extell, Elad, Milstein, Glenwood, Trump. All the big firms were there, along with many other machers and dealmakers. It could have been a convention of The No Nonsense Apartment Builders Association of the Greater Five Boroughs. Instead it was the third anniversary party for Goldstein, Hill & West and the unveiling of their new downtown offices.

The foyer is painted a slick graphite gray, with a globular chandelier overhead, but beyond that, the designer pretense fades away. There are no amoebic benches, no plywood bookcases, no 3D printer for producing models of unusually torqued and cantilevered buildings. Little hangs on the walls besides drafting templates and zoning handbooks. It is this simplicity of design, aesthetic and attitude that draws the city’s biggest developers to the firm. Read More

By Kit Dillon 9/21/12 1:48pm

An Arena Grows in Brooklyn

Will anyone be wrapping about "blue and white, blue and white, blue and white" any time soon? (Kit Dillon)

The Barclays Center: Built for a Bank, Not for Brooklyn or the Nets

Welcome to the grand opening of the Barlcays Center—through the Calvin Klein VIP entrance, past the American Express box office and into the Geico atrium—the sometimes home of the Brooklyn Nets. Because in truth, this is the bank’s home and everybody else are its guests. Today it is the press corps’ turn, and we have been welcomed in the grandest of style. Fresh orange juice, hot quiche and chocolate-covered strawberries abound, though none of the twee Brooklyn food that will soon be sold at the very Brooklyn concession stands.

As one reporter mentioned to another, “Remember the good ol’ days?” Would that be when Brooklyn had a team or when journalists could afford their own meals, or even a few sweet years ago, when this was still a hole in the ground, neighbor fought neighbor and the banks were booming?

Barclays and its backers are certainly aiming for a fond nostalgia at the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic. Read More

By Matt Chaban 9/13/12 12:49pm

An Arena Grows in Brooklyn

7 Photos

Barclays' Branding Slam Dunk

Just How Bad Are the Giant Ads All Over the Barclays Center?

We were actually expecting a lot worse, really. Preliminary renderings showed a giant blue crest and the Barclays name emblazoned beside it, not unlike the huge logos atop the Staples Center in L.A. (and the neighboring Nokia Theater). Instead, the photos revealed yesterday by the WCBS chopper show a small, even diminutive logo that barely dominates the large white roof atop the new SHoP-designed arena. Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/19/12 1:49pm

An Arena Grows in Brooklyn

Notice the two towers just the left of the arena in Frank Gehry's original design for Atlantic Yards. Not officially part of the project, but on the horizon? (FCR)

Brooklyn Nets a Mega Mall: Forest City Mulls What’s Next for Atlantic Terminal and Atlantic Center

It could be the biggest thing to come to Atlantic Yards since Barbara Streisand and Justin Beiber announced they would be playing concerts at the Barclays Center this fall. While everyone (but the neighbors and former neighbors) is looking forward to the opening of the new arena, Forest City Ratner now has its eyes trained across the street, to the two malls it owns there.

Once work on the arena is complete, the difficult task of moving forward with the adjoining apartment buildings lies ahead. But as interest in the area’s retail has boomed in anticipation of the new 18,000-seat venue, Forest City Ratner has also accelerated plans to redevelop the Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal malls.

“It’s an obvious opportunity,” MaryAnne Gilmartin, Forest City’s executive vice president, told The Observer. “One of the many things we think about is the impact the arena will have, and how we can help create a holistic neighborhood at Atlantic Yards from there.” Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/06/12 10:21am

An Arena Grows in Brooklyn

Barclays-Center-Plaza-1

Inside the Barclay’s Center, America’s Most Democratic Arena? [Video]

Forest City’s Ratner’s Mary Anne Gilmartin praises “the democratic feel” during a recent tour of the nearly complete Barclay’s Center with Curbed, while SHoP’s Chris Sharples waxes about the urban appeal of the place. “Everyone is going to be able to feel the energy” from the cafe overlooking the arena floor. It is certainly a dynamic place, a great space to take in a show—it’s already been a circus for years—but democratic? When it took eminent domain to put this together? Not the first time we’ve heard such claims this week. Read More

By Kim Velsey 5/29/12 10:33am

Procrastination

Is affordable housing too hard for developers to handle?

Megaproject Developers Promise To Get Around To Affordable Housing Someday

In a move that should shock no one, the developers of Atlantic Yards and Willets Point are dragging their feet when it comes to building the affordable housing components of their projects, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Atlantic Yards, crying “bad market,” has repeatedly delayed breaking ground on the 2,250 low- and middle-income units that were a major part of pushing the project through.

And Willets Point, promising another 1,750 affordable units, may finally have a development deal, but it will be a long time before any housing goes up. Housing is scheduled for the third stage of construction, long after the large retail center and hotel are finished. Read More

2/21/12 12:30pm

the sit-down

Gregg Weiser.

Moinian’s Main Man: Gregg Weisser on Columbus Circle and Young & Rubicam

Gregg Weisser knows how to handle a hot house. The newly anointed executive managing director of the Moinian Group, and volunteer fireman with the Kismet Fire Department in Fire Island, New York, is no stranger to putting out fires, be it a burning beach house or as a director of leasing across some of the city’s most notable addresses. As the real estate director of JPMorgan Chase, where he had worked for over 20 years, Mr. Weisser closed a million and a half feet of empty space in 1 New York Plaza.

Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 1/10/12 11:06am

power broker

Bachelorette winner JP Rosenbaum. (Photo by Kiki Conway)

JP Rosenbaum: Construction Manager By Day, Bachelorette Winner By Night

Want to vet JP Rosenbaum as the construction manager for your next development?

All one has to do is ask the housewives, teenagers, bloggers, reality TV fiends, and just about anyone who’s stood near a magazine rack while waiting in a grocery line, and they will uniformly say that he is the “cute and sweet” chap who swept Ashley Hebert—the titular character in last year’s version of ABC’s The Bachelorette—off her dainty feet. Read More