The *first* major proposal for the Westside: a 60 story Residential tower on West 42nd Street.

Originially posted by Krulltime on WNY:



Prices moving up


Developers already are paying top dollar for some prime sites. In a sale recently closed by Massey Knakal, Mendel Mendlowitz bought the entire eastern block on Ninth Avenue between W. 35th and West 36th streets for $22 million. The price had jumped 57% over the $14 million paid one year ago by the seller, AAG Management.

Some developers are so confident in the area and the city's need for more housing that they're not waiting for any more government approvals. Twining Properties-in partnership with The Related Cos. and MacFarlane Partners-recently closed on a site at 440 W. 42nd St., at 10th Avenue, without the promise of any zoning changes. The developers plan to construct a tower with retail stores, rental apartments and condominiums.

"The far West Side has got to happen," says President Alex Twining. "There's only so much land left in Manhattan."

From Twining Properties Website:

Twining Properties is pleased to announce 440 west 42nd Street, a 60-story high rise residential tower with over 600 luxury apartments in Midtown Manhattan. 440 west 42nd Street will be developed by a joint venture between Twining Properties, The Related Companies and Macfarlane Partners. The project will occupy an entire city block and will include two retail levels above underground parking and rental apartments and condominiums with dramatic views of the Hudson River and Times Square. Construction will commence in the Fall of 2005.

Rendering: (It's the white one)
http://img134.exs.cx/img134/2096/440west42ndst0dt.png

another one!!! :eek:
they're on a roll!

Hard to see the exact design, but that blue bubble atrium (if that's what it is) looks HOT.

is that gonna be built for sure?

wow!! great news!!

This one will probably be the biggest one out there, even beating the Orion, unless a taller one comes along.

The Daily News:

Secret city land deal a whopper


Property at 42nd St. and Dyer Ave., on far West Side,
that Bloomberg administration indicated it planned to condemn -
but then quietly sold to developer Steve Ross.


When the City Council approved the massive Hudson Yards development project last week, it gave the Bloomberg administration permission to condemn and acquire several parcels of land on Manhattan's far West Side.

One of those parcels is a city-owned block along 42nd St.'s Theater Row, between Dyer and 10th Aves. The buildings there would be torn down to facilitate construction of the No. 7 line subway extension and eventually a new station on the site.

But the Council was never told the city had no intention of condemning the site.

The city had quietly decided last fall to sell it to one of this town's biggest real estate developers, Stephen Ross, for the price of a song: $100,000.

If it sounds like a sweet deal, Ross must have thought so: He and his partners, TRM Associates, paid $107 million for the lease rights to the property, and sources say they plan to build a 60-story building there.

Ross, chief executive of the The Related Companies, is a close friend and former business partner of Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff.

He bought the site's lease in early November in a federal bankruptcy court settlement from the partnership that controlled the block for 25 years.

Among the small buildings on the block are the former West Side Airlines terminal and two off-Broadway theaters, neither of which produces much rental income.

But the block's real value is its development potential, thanks to the city's decision to build a new subway station that will have four escalators and two elevators emptying into it.

On the surface, it smacks of a back-room agreement.

The city issued no press releases on its deal with Ross, and the settlement papers weren't filed with the city Finance Department until Jan. 18 - the night before the Council's vote.

Bloomberg aides said last week that the lease sale was a private transaction, and that City Hall had no favorites.

But according to documents in the bankruptcy case, the Ross group won City Hall's support as far back as July.

At the time, several developers were feverishly bidding to win control of the site.

Theater Row Phase II Associates held the site's lease but was in bankruptcy and owed the city nearly $14.5 million - making City Hall's approval a necessity.

The Theater Row group, headed by William Condren, had bought the site's lease in 1980 for just $450,000.

After the sale, the Condren group paid the city $9.5 million to settle its debt, and walked away with a profit of nearly $100 million.

One of the developers who competed with Ross for the lease was Robert Gladstone of Madison Equities LLC. His lawyers have charged in court papers that the negotiating process was unfairly skewed in favor of the Ross group.

Madison Equities points to an unpublicized July 22 agreement among the city, Condren and one of the partners in the Ross group, in which the city agreed to back the Ross partnership.

"There was never really a conversation between our side and the city," a Madison Equities source said last week.

David Burger, Condren's attorney, scoffed at the claim and said Gladstone is a sore loser.

As for Bloomberg officials, they insist their only concern from the start was for Condren to pay his debts. They added that the Ross group was the only suitor to agree to provide the city all the easements it needed to build the subway and the new station underneath the site.

"It not only cleared up a longstanding dispute, but it provided the city with money it was owed," said Michael Sherman, spokesman for the city's Economic Development Corp., and "will allow the No. 7 subway extension to be completed."

But at the Council, all were shocked to learn about the secret sale of a property it had just approved for condemnation.

"It's very surprising," said Councilwoman Christine Quinn, who took part in marathon talks with City Hall over the Hudson Yards plan. "When you don't make complete disclosures, for any reason, it raises questions."

Ross recently built the giant Time Warner headquarters at Columbus Circle. His side wouldn't confirm plans to build a 60-story skyscraper.

Jeff Blau, Ross' second in command, would say only that it will be a "mixed use" commercial and residential structure.

Given the close relationship between Doctoroff, the city's economic development czar, and Ross, it's natural to ask if the deputy mayor had anything to do with the transaction.

Doctoroff, once a co-owner of the New York Islanders with Ross, did not return calls for comment.

"Neither Doctoroff nor the mayor had anything to do with this," said one city official involved in the deal. "[Doctoroff] is recused from any decisions involving Ross.

"It was a team decision," the official said.

Originally published on January 25, 2005


All contents © 2005 Daily News, L.P.

Here's a rendering I found of it, too bad the size is so small...

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/5158/440rend7wj.jpg

It's now 65 stories and can very well maybe possibly chance of being 700 feet tall

aw man! what happened to the previous design!? the current one is so much of a disappointment compared to the earlier one...

You can't even tell anything from the first one! Is it glass, brick, white brick, etc. This one looks funky and it's more innovative than other residentials built recently.

Build it!

Here's a rendering I found of it, too bad the size is so small...

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/5158/440rend7wj.jpg

I dont see the bubble in it

More...

http://www.twiningproperties.com/hc_images/a-ne-iso.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/43195260.jpg

The demolition process of the site.

Originally posted on Wired NY by Buff
http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1104

wow, great news!

Those renders look like they've been made in paint or something.

Just recently that entire block is now gone.

Originally posted by buff from Wired NY
http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1172&d=1128004620

This is fantastic news!! The area is becoming hot (NY Times, the Orion and now this).

^ Plus there are like 3 more lots been develop on 42nd west of this site. :)

Any photo updates??

where is that?? wich part o ny can somene shw me arieal foto or whole street

Just some more demolition to show.

Originally posted by NYguy on SSP
http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/50865754/large.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/50894541/large.jpg

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/27/nyregion/27cirque.html
Offstage Drama Surrounds 42nd Street Theater Site

By CHARLES V. BAGLI
Published: October 27, 2005
The developer Stephen M. Ross's plan to bring Cirque du Soleil to West 42nd Street has sparked a bitter drama worthy of the Broadway stage, a collision of art and commerce in a city where real estate development is constantly making and remaking neighborhoods.

Mr. Ross is not considering a late-life career change to Broadway producer. But he does want to insert the impossibly contorting human circus into a permanent home in a 60-story apartment building he plans to build between Dyer and 10th Avenues.

The project has touched off an imbroglio that pits the developer against theater enthusiasts, the local community board and some city officials and seeks to plumb the definition of "legitimate theater" - a murky rubric that has come to embrace drama, musicals and even puppets.

Mr. Ross, chairman of Related Companies, wants to take advantage of a city zoning regulation, a "theater bonus" created last year to encourage the building and preservation of theatrical space on the stretch of 42nd Street just west of Theater Row. The bonus would enable him to build a taller tower than would normally be allowed and reap the sales of ever more valuable apartments, in exchange for building a $140 million, 1,800-seat theater for Cirque.

To make way for the project, Related has already demolished the 286-seat Houseman Theater and the 199-seat Fairbanks Theater on 42nd Street.

But critics say that the zoning bonus was intended to nurture struggling, and often homeless, Off Broadway theater companies, not a commercial juggernaut like Cirque du Soleil. And, they say, the large complex Mr. Ross has in mind does not belong in the residential neighborhood that is emerging three blocks west of Times Square.

"Cirque can go anywhere it wants," said John Schultz, executive director of MCC Theaters, the company that originated the plays "Wit" and "Frozen."

"It doesn't have to be on 42nd Street, a neighborhood for Off Broadway theaters. You took theaters out and you should put theaters back," Mr. Schultz said.

MCC Theaters has been forced by rising rents and a scarcity of space in the theater district to jump from a home in Hell's Kitchen 20 years ago to West 28th Street, then to the Lucille Lortel Theater in Greenwich Village, where it now resides. But next year, when its lease expires, the troupe will have to move again.

In contrast, Cirque du Soleil, which is based in Canada, performs all over the world, pulling in revenues of $500 million a year. It has four theaters in Las Vegas and is building a permanent theater at Disney Tokyo that will open in 2008. During the summer, it joined Related and Clear Channel Communications in proposing a takeover of the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami Beach.

Anna Hayes Levin, a co-chairwoman of the land use committee at Community Board 4, which covers 42nd Street, said the board had initially supported Related's application for a theater zoning bonus based on its original proposal: to replace the two small theaters it demolished and build a "classical music center" that would be overseen by the Orchestra of St. Luke's. That project also had the city's blessing.

But in a move that Ms. Levin described as a case of "bait and switch," Related soon abandoned that idea, proposing instead to create space for House of Blues, a large nightclub and music hall. When that proposal ran into opposition from the City Planning Department and the community board, she said that Related quietly began talking about building a large theater for Cirque, as well as the classical music center.

"It's a Times Square entertainment use that brings large crowds all at once to what is fundamentally a residential area," Ms. Levin said of the Cirque theater.

Related executives contend that they never committed to replacing the Off Broadway theaters. On Oct. 6, Mr. Ross and executives from Clear Channel, his partner, took the Cirque project to the Planning Department. City officials and real estate executives who have spoken to Mr. Ross say that Related is planning a tower with about 800 apartments and has hired the architectural firm Arquitectronica to design it. They said Mr. Ross wanted the zoning bonus so he could build additional commercial space.

Jeff Blau, the president of Related, who has spearheaded the effort to persuade city planners and community groups, did not return calls requesting comment.

The zoning bonus, which is potentially worth millions of dollars, was the city's attempt to persuade developers to build and preserve space for Off Broadway theaters, which have been a launching pad for many actors and for productions like "Rent" and "Urinetown." City officials are now debating whether Cirque can be classified "legitimate theater," as the zoning regulations require, and whether it should get the benefit.

"We need to be convinced that it's truly a form of dramatic theater, not something that's more of what used to be called vaudeville," said Richard Barth, executive director of the Planning Department.

The city has long wanted to find a permanent home for Cirque, which has performed under a tent at Battery Park City and on Randalls Island. Indeed, Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff had backed an ultimately unsuccessful plan by Related to build a Cirque theater at the South Street Seaport.

But determining whether Cirque qualifies for the bonus on 42nd Street is all the more difficult because the zoning regulations do not define the term "legitimate theater."

Jesse Masyr, a real estate lawyer for Related, argues that over time the definition of "legitimate theater" has become so elastic that it now includes musicals, puppets ("Avenue Q") and tap dancing ("Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk").

"It's hard to define an art form that constantly needs to redefine itself," Mr. Masyr said. Rather than create a couple of small theaters, he said, Mr. Ross "had a vision that this would be something spectacular for the city."

Critics, however, contend that Cirque productions are wonderfully entertaining shows of high-wire and trapeze acts, clowns and contortionists, not theater. Further, Cirque is a robust profitmaking entity.

"Cirque is a commercial venue and does not qualify for a bonus for community theater," said Marisa Redanty, an actor and president of the tenants association at Manhattan Plaza, the complex that sits across 42nd Street from the Related project. Manhattan Plaza, home to hundreds of actors and musicians, is also owned by Mr. Ross.

"The idea of theater bonuses is a key to the quality of life in the city," said Fred Papert, president of the 42nd Street Development Corporation, a nonprofit organization that has overseen the development of Theater Row. "But the idea that Related, Cirque and Clear Channel would get a bonus is plain flat-out greed, corporate charity, and simply an appalling idea."

THANK YOU TALB now i know where is that! very close to orion tower

update pls!!!

i saw it yesterday.

One note about NYGuy's picture. Right behind the construction site is another blue glass building being completed. Do you guys know what that building is?

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/50865754/large.jpg

The orion. It's an old picture the building has been topped out and the facade has been completed, the only work that continues is electrical work inside. ( My brother just got furlow from the site), when he goes back he will be on the BOA, so expect some construction shots from me in the summer/fall when he gets back.

I would assume in a more recent shot, the building on the right is already demolished and a groundbreaking has already occured.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/05/nyregion/05site.html
After Blocking Tower, Neighbors Recoil at Void in Hell’s Kitchen

By CHARLES V. BAGLI

Published: January 5, 2007

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/05/nyregion/600_site.jpg
Marko Georgiev for The New York Times

An unidentified worker was at a lot in Hell’s Kitchen at 42nd Street, between Dyer and 10th Avenues, which was going to be the site of a 60-story tower.

Community groups in Hell’s Kitchen fought one of the city’s most powerful developers to a standstill a year ago, blocking his attempt to build a 60-story tower over a new home for Cirque du Soleil.

Since then, neighbors have complained that the rubble-strewn, 1.5-acre site on 42nd Street, between Dyer and 10th Avenues, has become a breeding ground for mosquitoes in the summer and cockroaches, rats and other vermin year-round.

In the latest skirmish, Fred Papert, who built Theater Row nearby, filed a lawsuit yesterday against the developer, Stephen M. Ross, chief executive of Related Companies, saying the site had become an eyesore.

Mr. Ross appears to be considering a new plan for the site, possibly with a hotel, luxury apartments and shops. The plan also includes two small theaters that community groups and leaders want.

After meeting with elected officials in December to discuss complaints about the site, the developer installed floodlights along the blue construction fence on 42nd Street and periodically picked up the wind-swept garbage around the parcel.

But the problem has gotten to the point where it is cutting into business, said Glenn Isaacs, the manager of the Travel Inn, west of Related’s site, and the owner of the Theater Row Diner, at Dyer Avenue and 42nd Street. “Our hotel guests are coming back to the hotel saying it’s dangerous,” Mr. Isaacs said. “There’s rats, mice, garbage all over the place.”

Yesterday, a worker was pumping the stagnant rainwater that gathers in an eight-foot-deep hole on the site into a nearby sewer drain. The city’s health and buildings departments found a series of violations last year relating to water that accumulates every time it rains. Some residents call the site “Lake Related.”

Mr. Papert’s lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, involves more than a dollop of revenge from a figure who was Mr. Ross’s ally in acquiring the parcel. It seeks $500,000 in damages and says that the health and safety conditions at the Related site, which sits “at the epicenter of a renewed and thriving neighborhood,” are hurting the whole community and undermining property values.

A new plan could be in the works for the site. According to a real estate executive who has been briefed on the developer’s plans, Related wants to form a joint venture with an unnamed hotel operator to build a 60-story, one-million-square-foot tower. The tower, with a hotel and luxury apartments at the top, would sit above shops, an Equinox gym and a couple of small theaters.

But Jeff T. Blau, the president of Related, said “there’s no deal at the moment.”

He added, “We’re exploring everything, given the Cirque deal not happening.”

He said he had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.

The city and the community wanted Related to replace the two Off Broadway theaters it had demolished. “Nothing would make us happier than if Related did what they originally promised us they would do,” said Mr. Papert, president of the 42nd Street Development Corporation. “The minute we know it’s going to happen, we’ll withdraw the lawsuit.”

Therein lies the story.

In 2004, Related was one of two developers vying for the site. Mr. Papert, who owned a minority interest in the land, helped steer the deal to Related. In the 1980s, Mr. Papert and his nonprofit group replaced several massage parlors on 42nd Street between Ninth and Dyer Avenues with Theater Row, a collection of small Off Broadway theaters. But they were unable to do the same thing on the next block.

Mr. Papert said he helped Related buy the land for about $107 million, because he understood that the developer would find a new home for the theaters in his proposed tower. Indeed, Related talked to city officials about an apartment building that would house two small theaters and a performance space for classical musicians.

Related, in turn, would have been able to take advantage of a city zoning regulation, a “theater bonus,” to build a taller tower than would have normally been allowed. But the company ultimately proposed to build an 1,800-seat theater for Cirque du Soleil, the human circus extravaganza. That plan was opposed by officials who argued that the bonus was intended to nurture struggling theater companies, not an economic blockbuster like Cirque.

The city’s Planning Department ruled last February that the project did not qualify for a bonus. Related then put the parcel up for sale, asking about $350 million. But no one was willing to go that high.

Marisa Redanty, president of the tenants’ association at Manhattan Plaza, which sits across 42nd Street from the site, said yesterday that Mr. Papert’s lawsuit was premature. But, she added, the company is trying to clean up the area.

“If they do not continue to make the site more community-friendly, then all options are open,” Ms. Redanty said. “And if they give us the theaters, I’m happy as a clam.”

NY is fascinatingly!!