New York City Development News

[desertpunk]

Lightstone interested In Developing Toll Brothers Abandoned Gowanus Site

image hosted on flickr

http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/20...rs-reveal.html

On the same day The Real Deal reported Toll Brothers expressed interest in a trio of Manhattan buildings, Brownstoner reported that one of its old development sites is being examined by another developer. The Bond Street lot off the Gowanus Canal where Toll once planned a more than 600,000-square-foot mixed-use development is now being examined by the Lightstone Group.

Though ownership of the property hasn’t been transferred, Lightstone has approached Brooklyn Community Board 6 for zoning allowances that seek more height in exchange for having 20 percent of the units affordable. Brownstoner said the developer is expected to bring a formal land-use presentation to the board in the fall.

Toll had laid plans for 460 condominium and townhouses after cleaning the Gowanus Canal, but abandoned the project when the waterway earned Superfund status in 2010. An investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency later found that Toll had underestimated the scope of the contamination of the canal. Brownstoner noted that because the clean-up is expected to be a decade-long process, it’s unlikely Lightstone breaks ground on a development any time soon.

[urbanaturalist]

Originally Posted by desertpunk

Greenpoint: Massive Lumber Yard Development Plans Revealed

Is that pedestrian/bike bridge going to be tall enough to let boats go underneath into the Gowanus Canal????

[JohnFlint1985]

del

[babybackribs2314]

Originally Posted by urbanaturalist

Is that pedestrian/bike bridge going to be tall enough to let boats go underneath into the Gowanus Canal????

I believe that's Newtown Creek, and no-one would ever want to sail into it... it's raw sewage. I doubt anyone would want to walk over the bridge, either.

[desertpunk]

John Catsimatidis getting ready to build his second of four Downtown Brooklyn buildings


curbed

It’s not happening as quickly as everyone would have hoped, but billionaire John Catsimatidis appears to be preparing to build his second of four promised buildings on Myrtle Avenue between Ashland Place and Flatbush Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn. As you may recall, he had to shelve plans to do the whole complex (initially two towers then scaled backed to four smaller buildings) at once when the world fell apart a few years ago, opting instead to do a single rental building (The Andrea) as a good faith gesture. But at the end of June he filed for a new 15-story mixed-use building at 81 Fleet Place. The DOB application calls for about 160,000 square feet of residential and 13,000 square feet of commercial. This filing was followed up by structural drawings at the end of July. This is what the rendering looked like back in 2007 but we can’t find anything more recent:

[desertpunk]

London Taxes Steer Luxury Buyers To New York

August 03, 2012 08:30AM


Pricey apartments at One Hyde Park in London

A new tax policy instituted in London could bolster the market for trophy apartments in New York City, according to the New York Times. Transaction taxes in London are already double what they are in the city for homes worth more than £2 million ($3.1 million), and in March the British government increased the “stamp duty” on properties bought for more than £2 million to 7 percent from 5 percent. In a move meant to discourage tax avoidance, the “stamp duty” tax for offshore corporations making such purchases increased all the way to 15 percent

Additionally the government will charge an annual tax on pricey properties already owned by such entities and make foreigners subject to capital gains taxes when they sell British real estate.

The move could weaken the demand for trophy apartments in pricey central London. In the last three years property prices in that area, London’s most coveted, have grown by 50 percent, whereas overall prices remain flat. But sales of £2 million-plus are down 3 percent annually from April to July, hinting that the new tax may already be showing its affects on the property market.

The added costs, especially for the privacy that many of the world’s richest covet, could compel the world’s wealthiest to park their money in safe New York real estate rather than apartments in London. The Times said that because of New York’s awareness of the local importance of its real estate industry, it likely wouldn’t impose similar taxes.

[desertpunk]

With New Tenants, PABT Retail Gets An Upgrade


inhabitat

NEW YORK CITY-In an effort to revitalize the facility and improve amenities for commuters, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey gave two national retailers the green light for space inside the aging Port Authority Bus Terminal at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan at a public meeting on Aug. 1. The Port Authority Board of Commissioners approved retail leases for Starbucks and PNC Bank, a Port spokesman confirms to GlobeSt.com.

According to a resolution from the Port, Starbucks inked a deal for approximately 2,165 square feet on the ground floor of the terminal’s south wing for a 10-year term and will invest approximately $1 million over the next four months to build its new store. On the other side of the building, PNC Bank is leasing 4,910 square feet of space located on both the ground level and second floor of the north wing, with another 150 square feet for ATMs on the ground floor of the south wing. Under its lease agreement with the Port Authority, the bank will invest more than $3 million in terminal improvements. Both deals were brokered by Vornado Realty Trust.

The new tenants are the latest businesses to set up shop in the bus terminal since the bi-state agency began discussions to revamp and make improvements to the facility. Earlier in the year, the Port also approved a three-year, 2,774 square foot deal for Discovery LLC, which will house the Cake Boss Café, an offshoot of the famed Carlo’s Bakery in Hoboken, and a 20-year lease renewal for pharmacy retail chain Duane Reade in the south wing. As part of these lease deals, Discovery will invest $2 million toward the store, and Duane Reade will plunk down $2.7 million toward infrastructure enhancements. Existing tenants at the PABT include Jamba Juice, Au Bon Pain, Bolton's, Strawberry and Heartland Brewerty Restaurant.

Port Authority vice chairman Scott Rechler, also CEO of RXR Realty, says the Port’s efforts to attract top shelf tenants to the PABT are paying dividends, both for the customers who use the facility every day and for the agency. “All of our new tenants are investing private dollars to enhance the appearance of this transportation facility, supporting critical improvements to this vital transportation hub that serves 7,000 buses daily,” he says.

The terminal – which serves 64,550,000 passengers and 2,263,500 bus movements – is also experiencing steady increases in ridership. Chris Ward, the former executive director at the Port, said at a New York Building Congress event last year that more people are coming into the city by bus than by rail to the central business district, citing a 42% rise in bus travel over the last 25 years between New York and New Jersey.

At the same time, a joint venture between the Port and Vornado to construct a 1.3-million-square-foot class A office tower atop the facility was put on pause due to the city's sluggish office market in late 2011.

[desertpunk]

Crane's up at the New Whitney Museum in the Meatpacking District:

[urbanaturalist]

Originally Posted by babybackribs2314

I believe that's Newtown Creek, and no-one would ever want to sail into it... it's raw sewage. I doubt anyone would want to walk over the bridge, either.

Thanks for the correction. However, I'm looking at Google Earth and see a nice size barge in there. At some point if its cleaned up, and enough new development is built next to Newton Creek, I imagine folks would want to have small boats up in there... I could be wrong....

[desertpunk]

Originally Posted by urbanaturalist

Thanks for the correction. However, I'm looking at Google Earth and see a nice size barge in there. At some point if its cleaned up, and enough new development is built next to Newton Creek, I imagine folks would want to have small boats up in there... I could be wrong....

That could take a while: Newtown Creek suffered a huge oil plume that will take years to clean up as well as the usual sewage, storm runoff, and industrial wastes that plague every urban waterway in the region. Not that that would stop redevelopment as we're seeing in Gowanus, but it makes the nabe that much less appealing.

[desertpunk]

AP

August 4, 2012

Hudson Yards: NY's urban town within a city

By Verena Dobnik

NEW YORK (AP) — New York didn't let its loss of the 2012 Olympics keep the city from moving on to another venture: building up the largest undeveloped parcel in Manhattan.

The old Hudson rail yards on Manhattan's West Side might have become the Olympic stadium if the city had won the summer games when it bid on them years ago. Instead, a $15 billion small city within a city will soon start rising on the 26 acres of land by the Hudson River, with the construction on the first building set for this year. Eventually, Hudson Yards is expected to dramatically change New York's skyline. The cluster of commercial and residential high-rises is flanked by parkland, a cultural center, restaurants, shops, a hotel and a school, according to the latest renderings obtained by The Associated Press.

The main developer, Stephen Ross, told the AP that groundbreaking is planned sometime in October for the 12 million square feet of real estate space — New York's most ambitious private construction since Rockefeller Center was built in the 1930s amid the Great Depression. Some have dubbed the neighborhood "Manhattan's final frontier." Bounded by 10th and 12th avenues and West 30th and 33rd streets, it is Manhattan's largest tract of land still available for major development, followed by the World Trade Center being rebuilt downtown a decade after the terrorist attack. Surrounding the rail storage yards in this once bleak industrial area were potholed roads leading to car and horse-drawn carriage garages, warehouses, low-rent brownstones, cheap delis and strip clubs.

Hudson Yards' first building, set to open in 2015, is a $1.3 billion, 46-floor tower — nearly half of it to be occupied by the Coach luxury leather goods manufacturer. Its glass atrium will stand alongside the High Line, a mile-long, elevated public greenway transformed from a defunct freight railway weaving through the artsy Chelsea neighborhood to the south. This inaugural tower is part of a master plan designed by the Manhattan architectural firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, which has produced the tallest towers in China, Korea, Hong Kong, France and Great Britain.

Still, in New York, "to build these very large structures on top of the tracks is a huge challenge," says the firm's co-founder, architect Bill Pedersen. "It's like dental work, threading through down below." An $800,000,000 platform will cover the field of open tracks that will continue to be used by the Long Island Rail Road, stretching under the nearby Pennsylvania Station transport hub linked by Amtrak to other parts of the country. The load-bearing main pillars of the first tower will be firmly planted into the ground, not on the platform.

Ross told the AP that the chosen architect for another high-rise along central, tree-lined Hudson Park and Boulevard is David Childs, who designed New York's tallest building — One World Trade Center, to be occupied by 2014 "They're creating a whole new landscape, a whole new district of New York City," says Bob Yaro, president of the not-for-profit Regional Plan Association think tank. "It will ensure that as the economy recovers, New York will have places for new business."

[...]

[desertpunk]

Massive Astoria Development Site Hits Market For $80 Million

One of the largest listings held by New York City brokerage newcomer Avison Young, which The Real Deal today reported is engaged in a legal battle with BGC Partners, has finally come online: a four-acre residential development site on the Astoria Waterfront. The Wall Street Journal reported that the site, at 3-15 26th Avenue, was formerly a lumber yard featured in the film “Freejack” and is now asking $80 million. Based on discussions with the Department of City Planning, Avison Young CEO Arthur Mirante said the land could be rezoned to allow for 800,000 square feet of residential development, rendering the asking price an even $100 per buildable square-foot.

Public records show the owner of the lot is the Le Noble Lumber Company, which first purchased it in 1984. Citing brokers, the Journal said it is one of several waterfront sites in Astoria, to the north of Long Island City, that could one day be home to residential developments.

[desertpunk]

DNAinfo

Quadriad Realty to Present City Revised Wahi Skyscraper Proposal


Curbed

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS - After more than a year and a half of discussions regadring a suite of skyscrapers that could radically alter Upper Manhattan's skyline, developer Quadriad Realty said it will soon submit its revised plan to the city.

Officials from the New York-based developer Quadriad Realty said they plan to submit revised plans to the Department of City Planning for approval to build two to four 29 to 31-story skyscrapers on West 190th Street and Broadway for its project dubbed the "Tryon Center."

The developer presented a preliminary plan to Community Board 12 last month, which includes more affordable housing units and buildings that sit up to 10 stories shorter than originally proposed in 2010. Quadriad officials said they planned to submit the new proposal to the city in late July, but agency reprentatives said they have not yet seen the new plan.

Last year area residents and community leaders said they opposed the plan because of the height of the proposed buildings, which are significantly taller than most of the existing buildings in Washington Heights. Developers argued in an initial proposal that they needed the extra space to include affordable housing, but critics said their rates were pegged to Manhattan's median income levels, which are still too high for the lower income averages of Upper Manhattan residents.

Quadriad officials had argued they would move ahead with an as-of-right plan for the building, which will include no affordable housing units, if unable to hammer out a compromise with the community.

According to the developer, Quadriad's new plan was hammered out after meetings with local leaders, including State Sen. Adriano Espaillat, Assemblyman Guillermo Linares and City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, where the group attempted to determine the right mix of income levels for the neighborhood.

In addition to building affordable housing units, the developer has promised renovations to public facilities, such as a facelift to neighboring Gorman Park, and a plan to renovate the 191st Street 1-train station's entrance. The units will offer more than 400 market rate rental units.

The latest plan, which includes a mix of residential and commercial space, increases the number of affordable housing units from 160 to 184 to accommodate more low- and moderate-income individuals and families. The development will provide 52 units for low-income individuals and 133 units for moderate-income.

[...]
Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/2012...#ixzz22udA36vF

[desertpunk]

Barclays Center signage goes up:



http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/b...ILGjpm3lrE8UMK

[desertpunk]

Pier 40 Draws Closer To Closure

How is the West Side’s crumbling Pier 40 like the Euro Crisis? Because, according Michael Novogratz — the founder of Fortress Investment Group and a board member of the Hudson River Park Trust — people didn’t understand the problem until it was too late. Now, the park is more likely than ever to close, the Villager reported.

The pier needs $100 million in infrastructure repair and has become a financial liability for the Trust, which was supposed to ensure that the 5-mile-long Hudson River Park was self-supporting. But over the next decade the park is expected to generate $200 million in revenue on expenses of more than $280 million.

Pier 40 pulls in $5 million per year for its parking, but even those funds were used to pay for a $6 million urgent repair of the northeaster section of the pier’s roof.

Hudson River Park Trust President Madelyn Wils has tried repeatedly to get the community to approve a residential development on the site — which a study found would be the least disruptful development while producing the highest possible revenue for the park — but was unable to get state legislative approval to change the Hudson River Park Act by the end of its session in June. The act forbids a lease of the piers for longer than 30 years, but developers are unwilling to take on the project with such a short-term lease.

[desertpunk]

Two Trees: Rename Eleventh Ave. ‘West End Ave.’


Mercedes House

Apartments at the second phase of Two Trees’ Mercedes House are in hot demand. Almost half of the apartments at the 384-unit rental building on Eleventh Avenue and 54th Street have already leased since launching two months ago, the developer told the the New York Observer.

But Asher Abehsera, managing director at Two Trees, has a plan to further augment the building’s success: Rename Eleventh Avenue, a street name that evokes strip clubs, not luxury residential development.

“If you got to 58th and 11th Avenue, there’s no such thing, it’s 58th and West End Avenue,” Abeshsera told the Observer. “If this was called 53rd, 54th and West End, you’re talking about a very different building.”

[desertpunk]

New York Times


56 Leonard St.

The Rewards Of Patience


By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO

Published: August 9, 2012

IN the darkest days of the housing crisis, paralysis was the word of the day. Even in the rarefied world of high-end New York real estate, developers and buyers alike had to put their dreams on hold, at least for a while.

The day that Lehman Brothers crashed in September 2008, instantly deepening the crisis, Michael Stern, a New York developer, took his first tour of the 1929 Walker Tower in Chelsea. He closed on the building in December 2009 for $25 million, hoping to convert much of it to condos. But then he made a strategic decision that is likely to pay big dividends: he leased the building back to Verizon for two years while he waited out the chaos. “The first time I ever looked at the building was the day the world fell apart,” Mr. Stern said.


1929 Walker Tower

A little patience can go a long way. At least that’s the lesson to be drawn from developers who have crawled from the ashes of the housing crisis — or from behind the barricades where they waited it out — to a Manhattan high-end market that has become a first-choice destination for the cash of the world’s wealthy.

New downtown buildings that were shelved during the financial crisis, like One Madison Park and 56 Leonard, are moving forward again, while conversions like Walker Tower are surging into a market constrained by low inventory, soaring prices and seemingly inexplicable sales to Russian oligarchs and Las Vegas casino titans. “It is a very powerful moment in new development right now,” said Kelly Mack, president of the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group. “Developers are seeing a very strong opening in the market to really push their projects forward. These two years were really worth the wait.”

Consider how much the landscape has changed. By the fall of 2008, contract signings for new development essentially stopped. By the first quarter of 2009, buyers were too afraid to buy. “Open houses were packed, but no one could make a decision,” recalled Jonathan J. Miller, president of Miller Samuel, a real estate appraisal firm.

One by one, new development projects stalled, because their pricing did not reflect the new market. “New development went through this period called ‘pretend and extend,’ or ‘pray and delay,’ or ‘a rolling loan gathers no loss,’ ” Mr. Miller said. But this year has seen a stunning turnaround. Across the Manhattan market, contracts are up 26 percent across the board from the second quarter of 2010, while new development inventory is down 58 percent over the same period.

Things are getting tighter, and that has encouraged developers beaten down by the market to get off the canvas and back in the match. Some 58 percent of the projects that Corcoran Sunshine is planning were conceived before the downturn, Ms. Mack said. Some projects on the drawing board in the boom years — when even newcomers fancied themselves developers — have ended up in steadier hands.


One Madison Park

Consider the situation at a troubled condo project called One Madison Park. It is moving forward after its original developers, Ira Shapiro and Marc Jacobs, ran out of money and the project went into bankruptcy. The Related Companies, along with HFZ Capital Group and Amalgamated Bank, took title on the building in April, shepherding it through bankruptcy and settling most of the lawsuits involving the debtor, a Related spokeswoman said.

The original developers sold 12 apartments out of a possible 69, generating only $38 million, far too little to cover outstanding debts. Desperate for cash, the developers were looking for money anywhere they could, to help cover cost overruns. Among those still involved in litigation is Ian Bruce Eichner, a developer whom Mr. Shapiro offered an unfinished apartment for $5 million, in exchange for a $4.5 million loan. Construction has begun again, and Related plans to sell 54 more apartments (3 fewer due to combinations). The company says it expects to start sales early next year. The Related spokeswoman would not comment further.


99 Church St.

Other developers are content to wait even longer. Larry Silverstein, the developer of the World Trade Center complex, says he hopes construction can start next year on a Four Seasons Hotel project designed by Robert A. M. Stern at 99 Church Street. It will be topped by some 50 floors of condos (a private entrance for the condos is planned at 30 Park Place). His strategy is to start selling the 143 condos by the middle of 2015, when the World Trade Center will largely be completed. The project was conceived in 2008, but the developers were able to hold off because they bought the land and paid predevelopment costs for just under $300 million. “We own the land debt-free,” he said, “so there is no pressure of any kind.”

[...]

[desertpunk]

Two Trees Begins Redesign Of Domino Project

image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/johnsen/tags/newyork/

During our conversation with Two Trees managing director Asher Abehsera on the success of the firm’s massive Mercedes House project, we turned briefly to the topic of the Domino sugar refinery in Williamsburg.

As we previously reported, Two Trees is rethinking the entire Domino project, including the controversial move of how much affordable housing to include. We asked Mr. Abeshsera how things are progressing. According to him, the planning process is just getting under way.

Should be an interesting one to watch.

[desertpunk]

Curbed

MePa Condo Now Shrouded in Fancy Construction Netting

Friday, August 10, 2012, by Jessica Dailey

345 West 14th Street, aka 345 Meatpacking, is officially the coolest kid on the block. The condo building is now covered with the most awesome construction netting ever, designed by famed Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. A Curbed tipster sent along a couple photos of the black and yellow spotted netting being installed, and we must say, it looks just like the rendering in the Journal. Hats off to developer DDG Partners, who paid for the 120-foot-tall artwork. It will remain up through September 30.

When completed, 345 Meatpacking will look like this:

buzzhome.com

[desertpunk]

Coney Island Development Site Returns To Market

A Coney Island development site ready for a 22-story building is hitting the market for $14 million, ERG Property Advisors, the site’s exclusive marketers told The Real Deal.

The property is located at 271 Seabreeze Avenue, near the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent to the Coney Island boardwalk and Seaside Park. It is zoned for residential, hotel or senior living use, and plans drawn up by owners American Development Group would sustain up to 183 hotel rooms or 153 apartments and 102 parking spaces.

American Development Group has been looking to unload the property for more than a year and ERG’s Richard Guarino, Vlad Loktev and Shawn Campbell are the latest to lead the effort.

The developer acquired the site in 2006 for $13.8 million, city records show, and laid the foundation for the building and an automated parking garage. But when the real estate market crashed the developers couldn’t secure financing for construction.

As The Real Deal previously reported, American Development Group put the property up for auction last May but were ultimately unsatisfied with the asking price, according to Guarino. Next Massey Knakal Realty Services took a shot with the listing, originally asking $14.9 million but eventually cutting the price to $11.95 million.

Now, after a few months off the market, it is reemerging with ERG. “Massey Knakal listed it at a time, in my opinion, when the development market was not as strong as it is today,” Guarino, a managing director, said. “A lot of developers are dying to find their first project in the new Brooklyn market.”

Brian Hanson, a director of sales at Massey Knakal agreed with Guarino’s assessment. “The market just wasn’t ready,” he said. About 10 offers did come in, according to Hanson, but not at a price American Development Group was willing to accept.

As The Real Deal reported last month sales of residential development sites in Brooklyn quadrupled in the first half of this year on a square-foot basis. American Development Group remains determined to unload the property, even though it will take “a little bit of a haircut” in a deal at the asking price, the firm’s head of investments, Brian Lockner, admitted.