By Stephen Jacob Smith 4/23 10:46am

In the Rezone

At least one developer wants to build more housing at their Hudson Yards site.

Tip of the Iceberg? Silverstein Wants More Housing at Hudson Yards

With the 7 train extension set to see its first train at 34th Street and 11th Avenue next June, developers are rushing to line up financing and break ground on millions of square feet in new projects. The New York Times took a look over the weekend at the progress at Hudson Yards, but they buried some news deep within the story: at least one landowner—Silverstein Properties, which owns a 90,000-square foot site at 41st Street and 11th Avenue—wants zoning rules changed to allow it to build more housing and less office space.

For an area with poor transit links, the desire to shift from commercial to residential is not surprising. Though there will be a new subway station at 34th Street and 11th Avenue, successful office locations generally require not only transit, but redundant transit. Read More

By Stephen Jacob Smith 3/12 5:55pm

One Mad Madness

Rem Koolhaas's 23 West 22nd Street: still not happening.

One Madison Park Lobby To Get Two Duplexes On Top

As some of New York’s avid construction watchers have noticed, something is afoot at One Madison Park. Specifically, on the 22nd Street side of the site, where Rem Koolhaas and his firm, OMA, were once tapped to build a staircase-like 22-story tower, which was to rise from the townhouse-sized site and cantilever over the building to the east.

That plan is no more, done in by the recession and the original developers’ spectacular bankruptcy. Something is, however, now rising from the site, and the neighbors are wondering, what’s up?

Curbed published a tip in January suggesting that the building now rising will be six stories, which The Observer has confirmed with an executive from the Related Companies this afternoon. We also learned that the lobby, as the relatively squat structure is being called, will feature two full-floor duplex units, starting on the third floor and rising to the sixth. The architect, however, has not yet been named. Read More

By Stephen Jacob Smith 2/27 5:02pm

Planes Trains & Automobiles

"It was controlled by a bunch of rich developers," David Gunn once said of Moynihan Station.

Former Amtrak President David Gunn Still Hates Moynihan Station

David Gunn was never a fan of Moynihan Station. When he was president of Amtrak during the early George W. Bush years, he pulled the railroad out of the project, which seeks to recreate the glory of the old Pennsylvania Station in the James Farley Post Office across Eighth Avenue. At the time, costs were the stated reason: Amtrak was expected to contribute to its new home, and Mr. Gunn said that the railroad had more pressing needs.

Current Amtrak President Joseph Boardman picked the project back up in 2009, and though it’s largely unfunded, Amtrak still intends to go through with the move. This, Mr. Gunn told The Observer this afternoon from his home in Nova Scotia, would be a mistake. Read More

By Stephen Jacob Smith 2/14 5:20pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio unveiled his housing platform today in Williamsburg, where housing prices have nearly tripled since 2004.

De Blasio Blasts Quinn’s Affordable Housing Plan as ‘Multi-Billion Dollar Giveaway’ to Developers

New York City public advocate and Democratic mayoral candidate Bill De Blasio added his voice to a growing chorus of commentators (including The Observer) who have noted similarities between Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s affordable housing platform, announced in her State of the City address earlier this week, and a plan proposed by the real estate industry in 2011. The proposal would cap property taxes for whole buildings if they agreed to set aside a certain percentage of their units to let at below-market rate rents. Read More

By Stephen Jacob Smith 2/05 5:00pm

Planes Trains & Automobiles

moynihan-farley-2006_2

Related Seeks to Swap College’s Tribeca Spread for a Spot In Moynihan Station

The planned conversion of the Beaux-Arts Farley Post Office on Eighth Avenue into Amtrak’s “Moynihan Station” has always been more about real estate and architecture than transportation, spurred by the city’s desperate search for atonement after the destruction of the old Penn Station. Former Amtrak President David Gunn didn’t mince words when he told Bloomberg News in 2011 that the project is “controlled by a bunch of rich developers.”

And Related Companies doesn’t seem to be doing anything to disabuse us of that notion. The New York Times reported that Stephen Ross has yet another trick up his sleeve to revive the stalled project: he wants the Borough of Manhattan Community College to move into Moynihan Station. Read More

By Matt Chaban 10/25/12 4:43pm

Mr. Ross' Neighborhood

5

Hudson Yards Will Be Taller Than the Empire State Building, Including a Higher Observation Deck

Earlier this week, the Related Companies announced it had found backers to begin building the first tower of its Hudson Yards project (at the same time that it is trying to get a break from the MTA for payments on the entire 16-acre complex). Should the project get off the ground, it will have a long way to go.

Sure, in terms of time, as it will takes years, if not decades, for the entire 12 million square feet of office, residential, retail and cultural space to be built. But there is also a long way to go in terms of distance. As the design team puts the finishing touches on the first phase of the project, it turns out the other office tower on the site, which has yet to find an anchor tenant or an announced start date, will become the second or third tallest building in the city when it is completed, surpassing the Empire State Building. Read More

By Matt Chaban 9/14/12 5:14pm

Walmart Wars

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Walmart Loses Store In Brooklyn, Running Out Of Options in New York

Walmart just sent out another cryptic release about a store it will not be opening in New York. Last time, it was an outlet at Willets Point. This time, we learn it is an even more serious non-event: the big box bogeyman’s long-sought beachhead in Brooklyn is not happening.

According to Walmart spokesman Steve Restivo, the company could not reach an agreement with The Related Companies to anchor the developer’s Gateway project in East New York. Despite this setback, the company promised to keep trying. Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/27/12 11:00am

Best Laid Plans

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Faulty Towers: Midtown Needs a Makeover, with Twice as Tall Towers, But Can Mayor Bloomberg Get It Right?

It was but one line in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s State of the City address in January, but it could prove to be one of the biggest of his dozen years in office.

“In the area around Grand Central, we’ll work with the City Council on a package of regulatory changes and incentives that will attract new investment, new companies and new jobs,” the mayor said from the stage inside Morris High School in the Bronx.

Hizzoner spent more time talking about Cornell’s Roosevelt Island tech campus, keeping the Hunt’s Point Produce Market from moving across the Hudson to Jersey and efforts to further expand the blue-collar workforce on the waterfront. Even the redevelopment of nearby East Fordham Road and Webster Avenue got equal billing with these vague pronouncements about “the area around Grand Central.”

Despite the scant mention, it turns out that for an administration that has never shied away from big plans, this may be one of the biggest projects yet. Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/14/12 1:40pm

manifest destiny east

Take me out to the mall game! (Queens Development Group)

Metslandia! Related and Wilpons Score a Bigger Than Predicted Willets Point Development

Talk about a home run.

After two years of negotiations with some of New York’s biggest developers, the city has scored a victory at Willets Point at once smaller and bigger than previously pitched. Today, Mayor Michael Bloomberg released the line-up for a 52-acre Willets Point development boxing in Citi Field, which will be built by a development double play by the Related Companies and Sterling Equities, run by the owners of the Mets.

The project will not encompass the entire 61-acre Iron Triangle. Nor will it follow the outlines of a plan for phased development at Willets Point released in 2010. But rather than being a smaller project, a glorified mall as early leaks of the agreement had suggested, the new plan far exceeds what the Bloomberg administration had once called for on the site two years ago—and not simply because the Wilpons will now build a million-square-foot “entertainment complex” (don’t call it a mall!) on the west side of their stadium. The bigger play is what is planned on the east side of the stadium.

“At Willets Point, where others have seen challenges, we have always seen enormous opportunities,” Mayor Bloomberg said at a breakfast hosted by the Queens Chamber of Commerce. “Today the valley of ashes is well on its way to becoming the site of historic private investment, major job creation and unprecedented environmental remediation.” Read More