By Matt Chaban 8/13/12 6:26pm

gambling men

A Javits casino? Don't bet on it. (Inhabitat)

You Can Build Your Casino, Just Not in Manhattan, Shelly Silver Says, and Maybe a Queens Soccer Stadium, Too

After years of opposition, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has decided to roll the dice on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s dream of opening a casino in New York City. There is just one house rule, according to the Daily New‘s Albany bureau chief Ken Lovett: not in my backyard. (He’s just as parochial as his constituents!)

The locations Silver is open to a casino include Coney Island—where Borough President Marty Markowitz desperately wants one—the new Mets megamall at Willets Point and the so-far-failed plans for one at Aqueduct. But proposals like Times Square and at a rejiggered Javits Center are definitely out. Read More

By Matt Chaban 2/08/12 6:11pm

Kimmelmania

Half time?

To Save Penn Station, Boot Madison Square Garden to the River

Despite his lack of formal design training, Michael Kimmelman has excited many readers, both architecturally adept and not, with his focus on urban issues. The Observer has begun to hear some grumbles, however, that that is all he cares about—bike lanes here, old housing projects over there, riverfronts a world away. What does he think of the Atlantic Yards apartment buildings or the World Trade Center Memorial. Won’t he weigh in on some capital-a Architecture already?

Well, today, as always seems to happen, he has done us one better. Read More

By Staff 11/04/09 2:45am

Four More Years! But for What? Experts Opine on Economic Development Through ’13

Almost indisputably, the mayoral race this year was a desert of big new ideas for New York City. Be it the lack of a competitive Democratic primary, the billions in budget gaps or the challenger’s preference for blanket criticism over policy prescription, the incumbent and-at the time of this writing-presumptive winner, Michael Bloomberg, was never Read More

By Eliot Brown 3/12/09 8:15pm

Bloomberg Wants Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge Park

Mayor Bloomberg is seeking to grab control of Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge Park, pushing the Paterson administration aside in an attempt to spur progress on the two projects, both of which would create new real estate development and public parkland.

As part of the mayor’s plan, his administration would take money it invested Read More

By Eliot Brown 3/12/09 8:14pm

Bloomberg Wants Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge Park

Mayor Bloomberg is seeking to grab control of Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge Park, pushing the Paterson administration aside in an attempt to spur progress on the two projects, both of which would create new real estate development and public parkland.
As part of the mayor’s plan, his administration would take money it invested Read More

By Eliot Brown 6/24/08 10:09pm

So Long, Javits Hotel

Plans for a soaring new hotel across from an expanded Javits Center have now gone the way of, well, an expanded Javits Center.

With expansion plans scaled back months ago, the Paterson administration earlier in June refunded the deposits of the three bidders vying to build the Javits Hotel, a tower Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 6/05/08 6:05pm

Foreigners to Storm Manhattan This Fall, Gobble Real Estate

Investors, their pockets bulging with foreign capital, will set down in Manhattan this September to eye local real estate investment opportunities, rub shoulders, and draw American investment overseas.

Cityscape — the firm that put on a popular Dubai convention last year — will host the the Cityscape USA exhibition on Sept. 10 and 11 Read More

By Tom Acitelli 5/20/08 3:45pm

Quinn on West Side Rail Yards, Moynihan Station, Javits Center

The video above, courtesy of The Observer‘s Azi Paybarah, features City Council Speaker Christine Quinn expounding this morning on major development projects like the Javits Center expansion and renovation; the stalled Moynihan Station plan; and the Related Companies’ West Side rail yards plans.

"I really see all three of them as critically important," Ms. Quinn Read More