New York City Development News

[sbarn]

Update on 56 Leonard Street from yesterday:

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


(photos by me)

[WillBuild]

City Tech to replace Klitgord Center with a new virtual campus.



For reference, the old building:



Courtesy of the Daily News story "History being destroyed [..]"

[WillBuild]

The 32 story building next to BAM's Howard Gilman Opera House has been approved.



Brownstoner: City Council Gives Thumbs up to BAM South.

Location:



From WNYC.

I had not seen this photo before:



This and other renders at Ten Arquitectos.

[WillBuild]

Perhaps not the most architecturally thrilling story, but the Bronx is getting a hotel. According to the daily news, it's first "major" hotel.



Seeing that Google brings up an existing Days Inn and Howard Johnson, I guess the writer means the first more upscale hotel.

[Vertical_Gotham]

Bloomberg's Seaport City Plan Met with Confusion, Skepticism
http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/0...skepticism.php

Probably the most controversial aspect of Mayor Bloomberg's $20 billion storm protection plan is Seaport City, the proposed elevated neighborhood just south of the Brooklyn Bridge, modeled after Battery Park City (which was relatively unharmed by Hurricane Sandy). The Wall Street Journal ran a roundup last night of the criticisms that have been leveled against the Seaport City plan so far, and they are numerous and wide-reaching. The director of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance in New York called the plan, "a real clunker," citing the harm that a new neighborhood would cause to the Seaport Historic District and the negative environmental impact of massive landfills, which harm fish and wildlife. Stanton Eckstut, the architect who designed the master plan for Battery Park City, has also pointed out that federal regulations against landfills have increased significantly since the '70s. "Ever since Battery Park City, you basically can't do landfills in America anymore," he said. "It's a no-no."

The potential cost of the project, which is not included in initial estimates, is also causing trepidation. So far, only $15 billion of the $20 billion plan — $10 billion provided through a combination of City capital funding already allocated and Federal relief, as well as $5 billion from additional, expected Federal relief already appropriated by Congress — is accounted for, leaving a gap of $4.5 billion. The city says that its too early to predict the cost of Seaport City, but conservative estimates put it in the hundreds of millions or billions, which, obviously, would be another major hurdle. One anonymous real estate insider told Crain's, "Sure, we all love development ... But it's in the same league with the mission to Mars."

Since it's too early even for the specifics of a plan to be offered, perhaps there's no point in worrying about it yet. Bloomberg, during the unveiling of his 250 proposals last week, said that, "it's an idea that deserves careful attention and further study, which will begin immediately," and a few others seem to agree. Crain's editor Glenn Coleman quoted Daniel Burnham: "Make no little plans." He went on to write that the new flood plain is "an existential threat to a sub-city the size of Minneapolis," i.e. something drastic is going to have to be done. The overarching question seems to be whether development should begin to retreat from the waterfront, or plan to stay.

[Vertical_Gotham]

--Can't see it EVER happening in NYC but hey.... ya never know!!


1,600m-high tower in the pipeline for Kingdom Holding Company?
http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com...il&newsid=1969

Plans for a mile-high tower may materialise from a partnership between the Kingdom Holding Company and Emaar Properties, Chairman of the Kingdom Holding Company Prince Alwaleed bin Talal told news company Reuters yesterday. In a phone interview Alwaleed told Reuters: “Right now we are discussing and evaluating the possibility of building a one-mile tower. We also need good partners. I invite Emaar and Mr. Alabbar (Chairman of Emaar) to join forces with us and see how we can build the ultimate one-mile tower somewhere in the world.”

The announcement was vague as to financing and a location for the tower, with Shanghai, London, New York and Moscow listed by the Chairman as potential cities for the immense project. If realised, the structure would tower over the world’s current tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and the Kingdom Tower currently under construction in Jeddah. The Kingdom Tower is due complete in 2017 at its full height of 1km (1,000m). It has been designed by tall building specialists Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill for Kingdom Real Estate, an arm of the Kingdom Holding Company.

[Uaarkson]

Detroit!

[desertpunk]

New Apartments Coming To 421 Kent In Brooklyn

The full-block lot at 421 Kent Avenue had expired permits for a Karl Fischer design when it last changed hands for $31.6 million in October. Chinese real estate company Xinyuan Real Estate Co. bought the property and is taking it in a different direction. The architects at WASA/Studio A are at work on a new building for the site, according to the firm's e-mail newsletter—that's a rendering of it above. The seven story-building will include "one-bedroom apartments to four-bedroom luxury units with rooftop garden terraces and individual pools."

[desertpunk]

Queens Blvd. Going "Great Gatsby"??


TRD

The Aston, a 16-story condo building set to rise on Queens Boulevard is being described as "The Great Gatsby comes to Queens again in a modern version," by its architect, Anthony Morali, and the similarities do abound. For one thing, Gatsby lived in a huge mansion and threw lavish parties, and The Aston will be a large (16 stories!) building in which people will also live, and it will have a "really nice roof garden" for parties. Also, both Gatsby (Long Island) and The Aston (Forest Hills) were/will be located in Queens. In addition, they will both come to represent the emptiness that accompanies the reckless pursuit of wealth and the failure of the American Dream (maybe, who knows).

All joking aside, what Morali actually meant is that the building will incorporate sharp angles and setbacks borrowed from Art Deco, which was the prevailing architectural style of the 1920s.

[desertpunk]

Construction moving fast at 46-10 Center Blvd behind the Pepsi sign:

image hosted on flickr

Pepsi symbolic by jglsongs, on Flickr

[Sarcasticity]

Wavy West 15th Street Office Tower to Add Some Funk to MePa

A lumberyard at the corner of West 15th Street and Ninth Avenue will soon depart for a much less gritty occupant. The Post reports that an undulating 12-story office tower designed by megafirm Kohn Pederson Fox will begin to rise on the site sometime next year, with an anticipated opening in 2016. Prince Tower, as it will be called, is being developed by the owners of the lumberyard, Prince Lumber (see what they did there?), which is relocating to West 47th Street.

[Sarcasticity]

1 North 4th Place Update

[Vertical_Gotham]

China's Wanda aims to launch $1 billion NY hotel project this year: chairman
http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...,7290627.story

BEIJING (Reuters) - Wanda Group, China's largest commercial real estate developer, aims to invest about $1 billion to build a five-star hotel in New York as its third major investment outside its home market, Chairman Wang Jianlin said on Tuesday.
The company is now in talks with potential partners for construction of a Wanda hotel and an adjacent apartment building in New York, Wang told Reuters.

"It will be announced this year, probably in the third quarter if everything goes smoothly," he said in an interview in his Beijing headquarters overlooking the Chinese capital's busiest boulevard.][/

Below, here's a rendering and an article of what he will be constructing for his (205 M) hotel in London's Canary Wharf:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/busine...cle3794776.ece

[MattNYalways]

Originally Posted by JohnFlint1985

Today by me

You're an excellent photographer. I'm from NY but currently living and working in the DMV. I miss NY always and i'm there as often as i can.

A friend recommended this forum to me and from just looking at some of the pages, i feel like i'm back at home. Great work everyone.

[Woonsocket54]

Originally Posted by sbarn

Great news!!

I compiled of proposals exceeding 100 meters in NYC (for another thread), so thought I'd share it here as well. I count 118 tower proposals across all of the boroughs.

If you're going to include "all of the boroughs" you should also count the Staten Island ferris wheel proposal.

[Nikonov_Ivan]

It's not building, it's structure.

[desertpunk]

Midtown South Is Targeted

Extell going for broke in new tech gold rush

Extell Development Co., one of New York's most active developers, is making a play to take control of a valuable portfolio of 14 midsize office buildings largely located near Madison Square Park, an area that has seen its office market strengthen recently.

The portfolio of early 20th century mid-rise buildings—with a value likely to be well in excess of $500 million—had been owned in a complex structure by two brothers, Frank and Michael Ring, and recently has sat largely vacant. On Tuesday, Extell bought control of Michael Ring's 50% stake.

Now Extell is seeking to force an auction in which the development firm would attempt to buy the entire portfolio, according to a person familiar with the matter. The sales price for Michael Ring's 50% stake couldn't be learned. Representatives for Michael and Frank Ring didn't respond to requests for comment.

While any auction is unlikely to occur soon, the move by Extell—which is building some of the most expensive condominiums in the city as well as an office tower on 47th Street—speaks to the growing appeal of the aging office buildings that fill Manhattan between Midtown and Lower Manhattan. Rents in this long-scrappy area—known as Midtown South—have seen the fastest growth in Manhattan as a burgeoning technology sector and other companies with young workforces expand in neighborhoods such as SoHo, the Meatpacking District and the area around Union Square.

[...]

[desertpunk]

Trump shies away from U.S. development branding


"Mr. Magic Touch"

Real estate mogul Donald Trump is known for lending his name to real estate projects all over the world. But he hasn’t licensed his brand to a building on U.S. soil since before the recession, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In fact, the last time that the Donald inked a licensing agreement in the U.S. was in 2007, with Trump Soho.

Trump is expected to release plans today for a Trump-brand hotel and condominium project in Vancouver. There are also other Trump-brand projects underway in Azerbaijan and the Philippines.

“My name makes everything more successful,” Trump told the Journal.

Stateside, he told the paper, he’d rather buy and develop his own projects rather than licensing them. But the Journal noted that several of his U.S. licensing deals have stalled or ended up in foreclosure. Trump Towers Philadelphia, for example, filed for Chapter 11 protection in January.