One of those "bests" was 500 West 34th Street, previously known as the World Product Centre. “It’s the best site in all of Hudson Yards," Mr. Barnett told us at the time. "It's overlooking everything, and it's right on top of the new subway.”

That is almost exactly what he told the Post's Steve Cuozzo in revealing that the project is back on. So singular is the project Extell is now calling it One Hudson Yards. As you can imagine, the developer across the street actually developing the 26-acre megadevelopment of the same name was none too pleased with the announcement.

Was Barnett worried the name might steam up Related chief Stephen M. Ross?

“I’m not interested in steaming up anybody, much less Steve Ross,” Barnett told us.

But Ross fumed, “I don’t know why he is trying to deceive tenants and the public."

Oh that Gary Barnett—so coy!

But the name is not the only thing underscoring his savvy on this project. Consider how he managed to get the MTA to help prep the site for his tower to rise.

Barnett said he’s cooperated closely with the MTA on the new subway station and helped the agency assemble the site. He said station construction also put in place some of the foundation for his tower, which will reduce Extell’s cost and allow it to build swiftly.

“We have the ability to begin vertical construction by the end of the year,” he said, “and the ability for our tenants to do their buildouts in 2015.”

As the battle for tenants heats up—not only at Hudson Yards but the World Trade Center, too, and possibly even Midtown East as a rezoning of the area is underway—it will be interesting to see how these towers take shape and who of the development titans can claim victory.

How will the buyer handle the challenge of arranging furniture in this massive living room?

Courtney Sale Ross may not be getting the full $60 million ask for her deluxe duplex apartment at 740 Park Avenue, but the sale will still set a record at $52 million, the highest price ever paid for a co-op.

While last week brought rumors that a buyer with deep-pockets had fallen in love with the sprawling apartment, The Journal reports that the feeling is mutual, and the famously picky co-op board has given the nod of approval, culminating in the signing of a $52 million contract.

What's more, the mysterious buyer is required to pay cash for the record-breaking purchase, according to The Journal.

Ms. Sale Ross and her late husband, TimeWarner CEO Steve Ross, combined two enormous units to create the 30-room residence at the most prestigious of Park Avenue address (paying a total of about $8 million for the apartments in the 1980s). The apartment has it all: Central Park views, two libraries, seven working fireplaces, both a formal and informal dining room, and six terraces. It has been listed with Brown Harris Stevens broker Kathy Sloane since November, but was secretly listed for the last few years at a reported $75 million.

The co-op listing was yanked down this week, but you can still peek inside the glorious residence>>.

When it comes to the world of ultra high-end apartments, buyers don't always get what they want (although considering the $88 million sale of the Weill penthouse at 15 Central Park West, $60 million wasn't necessarily a bad try), but they generally get more than they need.

kvelsey@observer.com

Not your typical New York apartment

It's not only the bright, shiny and new buildings like 15 Central Park West and One57 that are topping the $50 million mark these days. Rumor has it that the massive 740 Park Avenue home of Courtney Sale Ross has found a buyer willing to pay the $60 million asking price

Gadabout Michael Gross, the author of the consummate book on the consummate building, reports that he's heard from a reliable source that the unit, a deluxe duplex, has gone into contract for the full asking price.

Officially listed by Brown, Harris Stevens broker Kathy Sloane since November (although quietly on the market for the last few years) the 30-room co-op apartment is a sprawling and opulent even by the standards of the famous Rosario Candela-designed building. Ms. Sale Ross and her late husband, TimeWarner CEO Steve Ross, combined two already palatial units to form the residence. The space boasts Central Park views, two libraries, seven working fireplaces, both a formal and informal dining room, and six terraces. (It almost seems like an afterthought to add that there are eight bedrooms and ten baths.)

After a long spell of secret listings and price reductions, apartments at the esteemed building are apparently selling well again. This November, video game magnate Gregory Fischbach and his wife Linda sold their apartment (reportedly listed for $29 million) for $27 million.

No word on the buyer of the Ross residence, but perhaps he or she was prodded to action by the bidding war over Teddy Forstmann's penthouse on East 70th Street, which entered into contract for $40 million last week, marking the latest ultra high-end sales seemingly kicked off by the $88 million sale of the Weill penthouse at 15 Central Park West this December.

If you're considering listing your $70 million apartment, now is the time.

kvelsey@observer.com

Special treatment? (Related)

The eastern section (at right) would be exempted from the living wage bill. (Related)

Steve Ross sure knows his way around City Hall (part of the reason he has become one of the most successful developers of his generation). From his start in affordable housing to megadevelopments like the Time Warner Center, Hunter's Point South in Queens and Hudson Yards, Mr. Ross, chairman of the Related Companies, always seems to get just what he wants when the city is involved. One sore spot was the fight over the Kingsbridge Armory, in the Bronx, which was unexpectedly rejected by the City Council three years ago.

The fight centered around whether workers at the armory project, which was to receive a considerable amount of public subsidies, would have to be paid more than minimum wage, something labor unions were lobbying heavily for. That fight led to the eventual proposal of a living wage bill. In an unexpected, if unsurprising, twist, it now turns out City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has carved a portion of Hudson Yards out of the living wage bill, according to The Times.

A large portion of the Hudson Yards project, a 26-acre mixed-use development along the city’s Far West Side, is specifically excluded from the proposed so-called living wage legislation in a draft that was written by Ms. Quinn’s office and is now circulating among supporters of the bill.

Ms. Quinn plans to ask her colleagues next month to approve the long-debated bill, which would require companies and developers that receive substantial city subsidies to pay their employees at least $10 an hour. She had already announced that the legislation would exempt tenants in projects that receive city subsidies from paying the living wage; only the direct employees of the developers and some contractors would be affected.

The Hudson Yards exemption caught many of the bill’s supporters by surprise, according to people who were briefed about the legislation in telephone calls in recent days and in a meeting on Thursday morning.

A Related spokeswoman directed The Observer to Speaker Quinn's office for comment, which declined to discuss the Times' report.

A Quinn spokeswoman told The Times that, "The final version of this bill and its details are still being drafted. The legislation has not been finalized." Presumably this means its parameters, which currently exempt development between 10th and 11th avenues, could still change.

According to a source at City Hall, who was not at liberty to discuss the bill publicly, Related's property is being given the exemption for fear that without it, construction of the commercial towers on the eastern portion of the site could stall. Related recently broke ground on that portion of the project, with Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn in tow, once Coach agreed to be the anchor tenant of the first commercial tower.

The feeling is that with two more to come, the construction of which it is hoped will catalyze development in the surrounding portion of the neighborhood, it is better to ensure the projects than the wages therein.

"There are a couple special differences here," the source said. "There's a city-specific interest in seeing this through, since we borrowed $3 billion to build a subway out there, which will partly be paid back through commercial development. And there is a particular problem with the yards, versus the development around the Garden or Moynihan Station or elsewhere in the Hudson Yards district, in that you are dealing with the decking, which is especially burdensome."

The council is also trying to determine whether or not the block would be exempted anyway, because it might be de facto grandfathered out of the living wage bill. It has been argued that because of the type of tax benefits and development incentives being offered, it is closer to an as-of-right project than one built with the usual set of negotiated subsidies. In this case, there are subsidies, but they are inflexible and were agreed upon in years past, before the bill passed.

Whether or not this means living wage protections are warranted and appropriate is still to be determined, and could be a topic of great debate among backers of the living wage movement. Still, this provision was pointed to as a reason that other developers could not lobby for their own carve outs in the future.

"We don't want to add any new burdens to hold up that development," another source said.

Update: Even with an exemption for the Related Companies, the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union supports the bill.

"It's misleading and inaccurate to use Hudson Yards as a litmus test for judging the strength of the final bill," union spokesman Dan Morris said. "We're still on track to get a very progressive bill that goes further than what any other city has done to raise wage standards for taxpayer-subsidized economic development."

"It will fundamentally improve the way EDC, the largest economic development agency of its kind in the country, uses subsidies to structure and negotiate developments deals," he added. "We're proud of what we've accomplished."

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

While Walmart refuses to say if, when or where it might finally open a store within the five boroughs, one of its favored sites is the Related Company's Gateway Center Mall in the far reaches of Brooklyn. The area is economically depressed, meaning the cheap jobs and cheap merchandise are (theoretically) desirable. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union sees Walmart jobs as junk, and they have been campaigning against the store since it resurfaced a two years ago.

Today, they made things personal, not just with Steve Ross, Related's founder and CEO, but also his more than 7,200 tenants in the New York area.

The union and its Walmart Free New York campaign put together a postcard urging residents in Relatated's 26 developments across the city to contact the company and say they do not support a Walmart in the city. The front side of the postcard shows a Walmart sign looming over a terrace (above) while the back (below) directs tenants to a special website where they can send in an electronic complaint. Related representatives were not immediately available for comment.

Even in liberal Manhattan, it seems hard to believe anyone would move because a big box store might open up on the opposite side of the city.

Update: To clarify, the junk jobs referred to above were those of Walmart, not the entire Gateway Center complex, which the RWDSU does support, as made clear in this statement from a union spokesman:

Appreciate the coverage but the RWDSU does not view the jobs at Gateway II as "junk." We support the effort to bring in high-road retailers and businesses that will create the best jobs for local residents. Walmart is a low-road retailer that harms workers, small businesses, and communities. New Yorkers stand to lose far more than they would ever gain from Walmart, and that's why we're opposed to Walmart.

Also, this post initially misstated the number of tenants receiving postcards as 2,600. The number is in fact 7,200 or more in 26 different developments in New York City. The Observer regrets the error.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Pop would be so proud. (William Alatriste)

Mayor Bloomberg has set an ambitious agenda for his final two years in office. No, not finally fixing the schools, reforming the pensions or redeveloping Willets Point. Those are the easy ones.

“You should know that Frank and I had a conversation backstage,” the mayor said at the opening of the Signature Theater today, “and we both committed to each other that we would get 10 more Frank Gehry projects going here—in the next 700 days. If my math is any good, Frank, that is one every 70 days, so we should meet some time later today to get going.”

New York has actually faired quite well in the Frank Gehry department. The Signature Theater—now known as the Pershing Square Signature Theater thanks to a $25 million donation from hedge fund manager Bill Ackman—is his third building here. It follows after Barry Diller’s IAC Building and Bruce Ratner’s New York by Frank Gehry, that undulating apartment building downtown, of which the mayor is quite fond. “Every day I walk out of City Hall, I look at a Frank Gehry building,” he said, calling it “a great building.”

Gotham has delivered Gehry some notable failures, particularly the new Times headquarters and an East River Guggenheim, and the World Trade Center performing arts center, where he first met the Signature team and where the Joyce still plans to go, continues to languish. Still, New York boasts more Gehrys than any city outside of California, including another of his performance center at Bard, just a MetroNorth ride away.

Very Gehry: Take a Tour Behind the Curtain >>

It turns out Mr. Gehry’s connection to the city, and the site of the new Signature, at the corner of 10th and 42nd, is quite strong. “My father was born in New York City in 1900,” Mr. Gehry, wearing a tweed blazer, black t-shirt and jeans, said from the dais. “He was a street urchin in Hell’s Kitchen, it was a very poor family, and he was worried all his life, he kept calling me a dreamer, and he said ‘you’re gonna have trouble making it in this world as a dreamer.’ So I want to say, Pop, I hitched my wagon to the most incredible group of dreamers you’ll ever imagine, including the dreamiest dreamer of all, the mayor of this city, Mayor Bloomberg.” Dreamy!

And yet Mr. Gehry is not as familiar with his latest project as one might think.

“He said it’s going to be in an office building, and that has its problems,” Mr. Gehry said, referring to the early plans to relocate the Signature from Ground Zero into its new home at MiMA, a dark, 60-story glass tower developed by the Related Companies. “Putting three theaters in an office building, with the column spacing that an office building has…”

“Frank?” blurted out Related boss Steve Ross. “Frank. It’s an apartment building.”

After the laughter died down, the Pritzker Prize-winner continued. “You get to be 83, you can’t remember anybody’s name or anything,” Mr. Gehry said. “Anyway, it was formidable to come in and look at the plans and figure out where we could fit everything in.”

The real challenge will be fitting 10 more of his buildings into the city. “It was my idea,” Mr. Gehry told The Observer after the ceremony. “I said to the mayor, we need to do 10 more things like this.” And what might those be? “I don’t know,” he replied. “The Joyce Theater would be nice.” Any other dream projects in New York? “Oh, I don’t do that. I’m very superstitious.”'

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

The two towers, back from the dead. (Pay a Visit)

The Observer is not sure which is worse: a Tommy Hilfiger-themed hotel or just another blasé Marriott. The fashion designer had planned to tranform the Madison Square icon into a red-white-and-blue boutique hotel before he backed out. A plan to turn the landmark into condos already failed, but the owners have found a new buyer who still wants a hotel overlooking Shake Shack.

This will not be any old Marriott, though, The Journal reports. The MetLife clocktower is becoming an Editions Hotel, a brand led by none other than the very public Ian Schrager.

The lodging giant signed a contract earlier this month to pay $165 million to Africa Israel USA for the property, according to people familiar with the matter.

Marriott is likely targeting the site for its stylish Edition Hotel line, hoping to build fresh momentum for Edition after the brand stumbled coming out of the gate, some people in the hotel industry say.

The Bethesda, Md., company announced Edition in 2007 with hotelier Ian Schrager as a partner. It predicted then it would open 100 Edition hotels over 10 years. So far, there is one in Istanbul and one in Honolulu.

Meanwhile, another article in The Journal reveals that Steve Ross and HFZ Capital are closer to taking over the teetering One Madison. The two developers had been sparring over control of the property, but they have since teamed up and hope to win out at an auction to take place in December.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Presented without comment. (WSJ.com)

This comes from a story in The Journal today about Mr. Ross' efforts to launch a fund to invest in troubled banks. It did not pan out, but it did present the editors over on Sixth Avenue with perhaps their best photo-op since the paper's controversial Elena Kagan cover.

Related revived. (Property Shark)

The Related Companies is synonymous with flashy, glassy luxury apartment towers, from the sentinels of Columbus Circle to the Best Building downtown. But within this cool facade beats a caring heart.

Related will maintain three squat, brick apartment complexes as affordable housing, The Journal reports, thanks to some special subsidies from the city and perhaps an appeal to Steve Ross' roots—the Miami Dolphins owner got his start in affordable housing.

"This was the juncture point, where Related or any private developer could make a decision to take them market," said Marc Jahr, president of the Housing Development Corp. "They could get a ton of money in rent if they go market with these projects."

Related's acquisition and renovation costs for the three projects total $102 million. As part of the incentive for the developer to keep the buildings affordable, the Housing Development Corp., a quasi-public lender for affordable-housing projects, provided $71 million of tax-exempt loans.

[...]

The recession has actually helped the city dissuade developers from cashing in on affordable housing. "In this soft market, the incentives for developers to go market rate on a lot of stuff has been really diminished," said Mr. Jahr.

Next thing you know, the Dursts and Silversteins will be turning over marquee office space to nonprofits.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

The Moynihan Mall! (SOM)

It is one of the most mythic and elusive redevelopment projects in the city, the plan to restore at least some of Penn Station's former glory with a new station inside the old Farley Post Office. But this train could be delayed for good.Moyn* Station broke ground on a no-frills first phase last fall, but it looks like that could be as far as the ambitious station gets if Related and Vornado can't figure out what to do with their half of the station, according to The Journal. With a year-end deadline looming, the two Steves are coming up short on retail options for Moynihan Station.

Seeking other options, in recent months the developers have tried to get the City University of New York interested in a land swap plan with the Tribeca-based Borough of Manhattan Community College, the people said.

The developers would have built it a new campus in the back of the post office, and in turn, the developers would have been able to build apartments with unobstructed Hudson River views on the school's valuable land of the five-block campus along the West Side Highway.

But those talks appear to have fizzled recently, as CUNY officials showed little interest, people familiar with the discussions said.

As if it were not news enough that the Moynihan Station development deal was in doubt, who knew such an audacious, if now ill-fated, landswap was in the works? Those Steves never met a crazy landswap or air rights flip they did not like. After all, it was the plan to move Madison Square Garden into the Farley that derailed the Moynihan project most recently. The Journal also reveals that the developers have been trying to attract Nordstroms or Target, so far to no avail.

What to do? BeLTT will never develop into a fully formed neighborhood until it gets a mall stuff inside a historic facade.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC