New York City Development News

[desertpunk]

Permits Filed: 105 W.57th St. Rising Soon, Likely Topping Out Over 700 Feet


Old rendering: will the revived tower change dramatically?

New permits filed with the Department of Buildings likely indicate that construction is imminent on 105 West 57th Street. The future building will be 52 stories tall, which is one story greater than previous permits indicated, meaning the height will likely exceed 700 feet. Along with the other developments along 57th Street, this will dramatically transform the skyline and the corridor, giving it another notch when it comes to ultra-luxury developments.

[desertpunk]

88 Willoughby Construction Begins

image hosted on flickr

The 57-story condo/rental tower is finally going up at 388 Bridge Street in Downtown Brooklyn! Just yesterday, a lot of heavy-duty construction work started up at the site. It looked like workers were pouring concrete into the foundation, but our view through the fence wasn’t great. Last month there were stirrings here after years of inactivity. At its completion, this development will hold 234 apartments and 144 condos, both market and affordable rate. Construction on the H&M down on the corner of Bridge and Fulton started up late April. Onward and upward!

[desertpunk]

TRD

Brookfield plans apartments for Manhattan West
May 07, 2012 09:00AM



Long considered only for its office and retail potential, Brookfield Office Properties’ massive Manhattan West development site could include residential, too. Citing information from an investor call, Bloomberg News reported that the developer may include up to 900 residential units in its 5.4 million-square-foot plan.

“We’ve always highlighted the office density because we’re an office landlord,” said Brookfield Office President Dennis Friedrich said. “But we have the ability to build 900 units on that site. That market has really taken off, and may drive greater value for us, so we took a little bit of time to study that.”

The current plans calls for two skyscrapers on the site, located along Ninth Avenue across from Pennsylvania station. New Chairman Ric Clark said the firm is still negotiating to begin construction on the platform above the rail yards.

[...]

[desertpunk]

Slender 16 Story Resy Slated For 14th & Third

EV Grieve: Monday, May 7, 2012

Another high rise rising on 14th Street and Third Avenue

Back in November 2008, workers demolished the addendum to Jam Envelope & Paper on Third Avenue just a few steps north of East 14th Street, as Jeremiah's Vanishing New York reported.

As he noted at the time, "You can bet some clever architect is somewhere licking his chops, delighting in a scheme to slip a sliver of glass into this narrow cleft of sky."

Indeed, the time has come for that...


We just noticed that work has started on the sliver...

The city previously approved plans for a "new mixed use 16-story building."

According to the DOB, they'll be commercial space on the ground floor ... and one unit on each of the subsequent floors — 15 "residential apartments" in total. We didn't come across any renderings just yet.

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[desertpunk]

Curbed

Durst Fetner Starts Digging at 625 West 57th, But Not BIG Yet



by Pete Davies

The gang at Durst Fetner have finally started to dig down into their mega-site at 625 West 57th Street, but the highly anticipated pyramid scheme from Bjarke Ingels Group, first made public over a year ago, still hasn't gotten the go ahead. Filings at the Department of Buildings show what's initially planned just south of the grand old IRT Powerhouse is a 5-story stump, rather than BIG's 450 foot slope of residences with great river views. Zoning diagrams for this comparatively puny 80-foot plateau showed up in mid-April, and what they reveal are plans for a big rectangular box.

Durst reps announced in December that this spring would bring the start of construction, and they've made good on their promise. The developers also acknowledged that this site, given the zoning complexities, could possibly see something more conventional than Bjarke's BIG metal mountain rising above Joltin' Joe's stretch of riverfront roadway. But with money moving once again, we're ever hopeful that the pyramid will come to pass. This weekend a watchful sleuth at Wired New York posted the first shots of Durst's big dig out, showing a bevy of heavy equipment doing some dirty deeds on site. Right now the expanse of land at 625 West 57th is a big blank slate, with only the first markings being made, a time when everyone can be optimistic about what's to come.

---

This is truly worrying. Restrictions might force the developers to set the now-iconic pyramid aside for something much more ordinary. As it stands, what's being built now is exactly that: an ordinary 5 story retail stump.

From this:


To This?


Stay tuned...

[Uaarkson]

[desertpunk]

TRD

Lehman could facilitate second new Park Avenue office tower
May 8 2012



Just two weeks after L&L Holdings requested proposals for Park Avenue’s first new office tower in three decades, speculation is growing that a second new tower could rise on the avenue. According to the New York Post, now that Lehman Brothers Holdings has full control over 237 Park Avenue it is considering building a new tower on the property, near 45th Street.

Monday Properties both manages 237 Park Avenue and owns the neighboring building at 230 Park Avenue. The addresses were going to be merged for zoning lot purposes in order to construct a new tower around 237 Park Avenue. But to build that new tower, developers need about 1.5 million square feet of air rights, which is owned by Lehman Brothers and Argent Ventures.

Now that Lehman has a stake in the properties, and considering it already has a stake in the air rights, perhaps the landlords can strike a deal for additional air rights and expand atop the existing structure or build a new one entirely, the Post said.

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[desertpunk]

NY Times EV

CBGB Returns as Summer Festival, May Reopen as Club



For the last six years the name CBGB has been little more than a logo on T-shirts for young people in the East Village. Now a group of investors has bought the assets of that famous punk-rock club, which closed in 2006, and plans to establish an ambitious music festival this summer, with an eye toward reopening the club at a new downtown location.

The new owners of the club’s assets — some with ties to the original Bowery establishment — say they hope that the festival will revive the wide-open artistic aesthetic associated with CBGB, which in its heyday served as an incubator for influential acts like Television, the Talking Heads, the Ramones, Blondie, Sonic Youth and Patti Smith.

“We’re never going to recreate that moment in time,” said Tim Hayes, one of the investors. “We’re trying to continue the idea of supporting live music, making a lot of noise and being a part of New York City. The festival is one way we can do it. Eventually the club will be another way we can do it.”

[...]

[desertpunk]

NYU seeks approval to build $1.2B pavilion

The 22-story, 830,200-square-foot building for inpatient and outpatient service will be located on the medical center's existing campus, at East 34th Street.

NYU Hospitals Center is expected to announce Monday that it has filed for state regulatory approval of its long-awaited $1.2 billion project to build a new clinical facility, the Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Pavilion.

The certificate of need, filed last month, calls for a 22-story, 830,200-square-foot building for inpatient and outpatient services. It will be located on the medical center's existing East 34th Street campus, between First Avenue and the East River, where the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation and the Ronald O. Perelman Research buildings now stand. NYU said the project could generate 10,400 construction and related jobs in New York, $1.44 billion in economic output and 9,100 nonconstruction jobs.

If approved, the new pavilion will have 374 inpatient rooms with one bed each. That design could help the hospital's bottom line by helping it control costly infections and making patients feel better about their hospitalization—at a time when reimbursement will be based in part on patient satisfaction scores.

[...]
Read more: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...#ixzz1uJAqJmGs

[desertpunk]

High Line area residentials begin their big dig:

Avalon West Chelsea:

http://afinecompany.blogspot.com/201...p-of-high.html


http://afinecompany.blogspot.com/201...p-of-high.html


Related site at 30th and 10th St.:

http://afinecompany.blogspot.com/201...p-of-high.html

MAYBE rendering:

http://afinecompany.blogspot.com/201...p-of-high.html

[yankeesfan1000]

Originally Posted by Uaarkson

sbarn, no need to worry:

"No no, the 5 story stump will most likely not be built. When going through the NYC approvals process (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure or ULURP) there is a requirement to show a "Proposed scenario" and then a "No Build scenario" - developers generally show the crappiest building possible in order to make a case why their proposal should be built. I used to work for the city and saw this done many times. I would not worry about the stump... I'm more worried about them requesting alterations to the design like Torre Verre. I think something like a height change would really reduce the impact of this design."

[desertpunk]

TRD

First phase of Moynihan Station construction to begin later this year



The first phase of the delayed Moynihan Station project is slated to begin later this year, Reuters reported. The upcoming project will expand Pennsylvania Station’s access to underground passenger platforms and is projected to cost $270 million.

The plans include creating street-level entrances on two corners of Eighth Avenue, one at 31st Street and the other at 33rd Street, to train platforms underground. There will also be reconstruction of an underground passageway to Penn Station to make it both wider and extend further for better access to Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and the Long Island Railroad. Additional plans include the installation of an underground ventilation system.

The first phase is expected to be completed in 2016. The second phase of the project will convert the James Farley Post Office, which is located across Eighth Avenue from Penn Station, into a six-story passenger hub.

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Curbed

Moynihan Station Will 'Be Fit For Humans'



Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye knows how to sell a project alright. Announcing a $270 million expansion into Moynihan Station that will double the length of Penn Station's western concourse and expand access to Amtrak and NJ Train platforms to six entrances on 33rd and 33rd Street that will include elevators and escalators, Foye admitted that the current situation is pretty bad, but that commuters' routines would "be fit for humans" after the Moynihan Station project was complete. Project officials are expected to announce the winning bidder for construction of Phase I of the project this afternoon, after all of the earlier bids were rejected for being too high.

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"Fit for humans"? That's some pretty big talk!

[desertpunk]

Curbed

Morphosis Goes First on Roosevelt Island Tech Campus



From the six final candidates, Cornell chose Morphosis Architects to design the first building on its Roosevelt Island applied sciences campus. University officials made the announcement last night at a Manhattan Community Board 8 meeting on Roosevelt Island to discuss a master plan for the campus. It's a safe bet that Morphosis will not choose to create a carbon copy of the Cooper Union building pictured above in the SOM flyover rendering, but it is an example of the firm's work on an academic building and architect Thom Mayne's other structures that veil glass buildings behind perforated metal. The Morphosis building will be the first of three academic buildings located on the campus, which will be aligned on a north-south axis, with the first being closest to the 59th Street Bridge. The plan calls for the structure to be 150,000 square feet and, probably no more than eight stories; "Academics don't like to work in high-rises," explained Kathy Dove, VP of CornellNYC Tech. First drafts of Mayne's plans for the building are expected by November 2012, with a schematic design in March 2013.

[desertpunk]

One World Trade Center: After Redesign, Official Height Only 1,368 Feet

These renderings, via the New York Times from the Durst Organization, show the re-imagined spire (or antenna) of One World Trade Center. The former design was much more bulky and was an actual spire--the new design is simply an antenna mast, which would be used for communications.

The contrast is clear, as the old spire was much bulkier and larger, with the new antenna plainly mechanical. Besides the change in function, the official height of the building will also be different. The Council on Tall Buildings defines spires as architectural elements, a category antenna do not fall under. Thus, the design change also alters the building's official height from 1,776 feet tall to only 1,368. The difference is trivial, but would make One World Trade's reign as New York's 'official' tallest very short, as 432 Park's official height will be almost 1,400 feet.

Durst representative Jordan Barowitz said “We never have, never will, refer to it as an antenna,” but that doesn't change the fact that the rendering on the right most definitely depicts an antenna rather than a spire. Semantics are everything when it comes to deciding the official heights of buildings. Durst is free to consider the antenna a spire, but anyone with eyes can see that it is plainly an antenna, and not an architectural addition to One World Trade.

[...]

[desertpunk]

225 W.57th St. going to get high?

NYO

“We’re Like The Avis Guys:” An Afternoon With Gary Barnett

In the world of Gary Barnett, everything is the best.

The president of Extell Development, a company he launched in the 1990s following a stint as a diamond trader in Belgium, made this plainly clear during a recent tour of One57, his 1,005-foot-tall tower near Carnegie Hall on West 57th Street. When completed, the building will rank not only among the city’s tallest properties, but, with its views of Central Park, among its most luxurious as well. In other words, the best.

On the One57 amenities: “This will be the best amenities package in the entire city. All the others are good. But they don’t have everything.”

On the One57 finishes: “Look at this kitchen. Where will you find a kitchen anywhere like this? It’s the best, and we have two of them.”

On the One57 floor plans: “We have the best floor plans on the market.”

[...]

Mr. Barnett might deserve pride of place were it for his singular One57 alone, but he has so much more going on, it is amazing he, or anyone, can keep track. While some of his rivals and compatriots might have bought and sold more in recent years, no one is building more, and more different, projects. “He’s very focused on what he does, more than some of the others,” REBNY president Steven Spinola said. “Not that they don’t focus, but he seems to focus in his own way.”

The Rushmore and the Aldyn, two developments at Riverside South, finished just as the market was headed south, along with the Lucida on the Upper East Side and the mock-historical 535 West End Avenue on the Upper West Side. Yet they have attracted the likes of David Wright, Robin Williams, Tyson Chandler and Mr. Real Estate himself, Alex Rodriguez, who flipped a Rushmore penthouse for a 50 percent profit after owning it for less than a year. Like One57, the neighborhood transforming International Gem Tower is finally rising on an otherwise dowdy 47th Street. A new Hyatt is headed skyward nearby, in Times Square, harkening back to Mr. Barnett’s early days in hotels. Another luxury building on West 43rd Street is in the works, as well as one downtown—Mr. Barnett would not say where—and the Carlton House is well underway. Certainly something has been forgotten.

And, according to sources outside the developer, Mr. Barnett has tapped another Pritzker firm, Herzog & de Meuron, of 40 Bond fame, to build a 1,250-foot residential tower at Broadway and 57th Street. Yes, One57 was not enough. When it stops being the best, this project, and so many others, will be ready to carry on the legacy. When asked about the project, Mr. Barnett did not deny it, though he noted that, “Nothing had been settled, not the height, not the architect.” So be it. Perhaps now that Harry Macklowe’s 432 Park is climbing toward 1,395 feet, maybe Mr. Barnett wants to build a 1,400-foot tower.

[...]

A THIRD supertall for 57th St? It's getting downright crazy over there!

[desertpunk]

TRD

City Point lands Century 21 as anchor tenant needed to launch construction



Century 21 has agreed to open a store at the Fulton Mall in Downtown Brooklyn, the Wall Street Journal reported, expediting the groundbreaking of the long-awaited City Point development. The discount retailer is the first new traditional department store to open in Downtown Brooklyn since the 1970s and will serve as the anchor tenant for City Point, a planned development of 675,000 square feet of retail and commercial space and 690 housing units at Dekalb and Flatbush avenues.

With the tenant in hand, Acadia Realty Trust and Washington Square Partners plan to break ground on the project this summer and have pushed forward the ground breaking date for the last phase of the complex, a 680-foot residential tower, to 2017.

“We would not have moved forward without an anchor. Century 21 was what we really needed to make this project a reality,” said Washington Square President Paul Travis.

[...]

And away we go! Hopefully the tallest component can begin sooner. Market forces will determine...

[desertpunk]

Brookfield Polishing Key Hudson Yards Property

image hosted on flickr

http://www.nysonglines.com/33st.htm

Views and light also make towers worth more, which is why Brookfield Properties is considering replacing the relatively small windows at its Hudson Yards behemoth, 450 W. 33rd St., with floor-to-ceiling beauties.

Speaking at the Bisnow Tech Summit last week, which was held on the 12th floor of the building, Brookfield’s David Cheikin said the developer wanted to take advantage of the 14-to-16-foot slab-to-slab heights as well as the views.

There are massive floors available, including the third floor of 138,680 square feet; the 11th floor of 91,431 square feet; and the full 12th floor, with 110,955 square feet. Asking rents range from $35 to $45 a square foot, sources said.

The former John Hancock Building has views to the west over the Hudson Yards, the High Line and the Hudson River. Those to the east are of the company’s own upcoming three-tower Manhattan West project of 5.4-million-square feet.

[...]
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/busines...#ixzz1uUyt7kUl

[desertpunk]

Thor's Hammer Coming Down On 43rd and Fifth

Thor Equities has just obtained demolition permits for the buildings on the northwest corner of West 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue, where it intends to develop a large retail base and later construct a tower.

Retailers are already considering its plans, sources said.

[...]
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/busines...#ixzz1uV2zy720

[Simfan34]

Originally Posted by desertpunk

One World Trade Center: After Redesign, Official Height Only 1,368 Feet

WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO AMERICANS!!! I'm speechless.

[Arawooho]

Originally Posted by desertpunk

One World Trade Center: After Redesign, Official Height Only 1,368 Feet

Game over man, game over.