NEW YORK | 250 East 57th Street | 218m | 715ft | 57 fl | App

[HK999]

exactly. when phase II is U/C (the actual tower) we can move this thread.

[RobertWalpole]

The New York Times published the following interview with the developer:

Square Feet | The 30-Minute Interview
James D. Stanton
By VIVIAN MARINO
Published: October 8, 2010

Mr. Stanton, 58, is the president of the World-Wide Holdings Corporation, which was started by his father, Frank, and Victor Elmaleh, who serves as the chairman. The company develops luxury apartments like 255 East 74th Street and 53 Park Place. Its current project is a massive development on East 57th Street that will include schools, retail space and a 60-story residential tower.

Q Is Mr. Elmaleh, now in his 90s, still very active in the business?

A Victor is very involved; he’s in the office virtually every day. He’s the chairman and he made me the president about 10 years ago when my father passed away.

Victor gets to say yea or nay on everything we do. That being said, there’s nothing that I’ve ever wanted to do that Victor’s said no to. I’m the one who oversees everything that happens in the company — all of our deals, all of our staffing.

Q So you’re really the de facto C.E.O.

A I guess.

Q Are you busy right now?

A We’re pretty busy. We just finished our 74th Street project, which is a condominium. All of our apartments are pretty much closed. We have about five or six left, and we rented them for $18,000 to $22,000 a month.

Q Sales there began before Lehman Brothers collapsed. Have you had to lower prices?

A I guess we’re probably taking 10 percent less now.

We had almost 90 percent sold, and closings were to start a month before Lehman went under. Then we started getting a lot of calls from buyers. We tried to work everything out; we didn’t lower the price then. In most cases we gave them something toward their closing costs, or let them switch to a less expensive unit. One buyer walked away from a $1 million deposit. Never even picked up the telephone.

Q What’s the status of the mixed-used development on 57th Street?

A It’s actually a three-phase project. The first phase was building P.S. 59 out of the old Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital on 63rd Street; we did that in less than 10 months. This will be its temporary home until the construction at 57th Street is completed, then serve as a new neighborhood school.

Both P.S. 59 and the High School of Art and Design will be relocated to 57th Street; they should occupy in 2012. Phase 3 will be a 60-story tower that will have rentals and condominiums. We’ll start in 2012, and it’ll take at least three years from then. There will also be a Whole Foods.

Q Is this your biggest project?

A It’s the biggest we’ve done — total size will be just under a million square feet — and it’s the most exciting. I enjoy the fact that we’re producing three schools. I also think with a 60-story, 450,000-foot tower, you could do something interesting and make a statement at a location that’s pretty gloomy after 3 o’clock, when school lets out.

Q Will it be green?

A I think our tower will probably be green, but we’re just starting to think about it.

Q What else are you working on?

A We have another assemblage on the Upper East Side. I can’t divulge that yet. It will be residential or hospitality.

Q Are you finding any distressed opportunities?

A We tend to be a value-oriented buyer and assembler of real estate. We’re not finding a lot of those distressed opportunities. But there is a tremendous amount of capital out there. We’re starting to see a little bit of a push toward using that capital for development projects again.

Q Your building at 53 Park Place abuts the proposed Muslim community center at ground zero. Have you tried to buy that property yourself?

A We tried to buy that building many, many times — the Burlington coat factory building — years ago. It was not a great building really. We would have just added another 100 or so apartments to our 500 apartments.

Q So why doesn’t World-Wide have its own Web site?

A We just weren’t that into promoting ourselves. We do have Web sites for each one of our projects, but we should have a corporate Web site — and we will. It’ll be a good reason to complete one after this interview.

Q And could your online presence extend to social media like Facebook?

A I’m not allowed to be on Facebook. My sons won’t let me.

Q Do you and Mr. Elmaleh still play squash together?

A I do play with him on occasion. He actually created a special game of squash, which is played on half a court, and he almost never loses at that game. And I have never won. We’re now starting the Hamptons Squash Academy, which will expose less-privileged kids to squash.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/re...ref=realestate

[Ni3lS]

Lol some some questions are really offtopic.

Do you and Mr. Elmaleh still play squash together?

could your online presence extend to social media like Facebook?

[RobertWalpole]

This tower is under constuction, and the thread should be moved.

[Ni3lS]

Get us a picture

[RobertWalpole]

[DinoVabec]

Originally Posted by RobertWalpole

When I first saw this, my first reaction was "WTF, hell no"..Second was "This can't be true.."..Third was "No, seriously, how the hell"..

Then I saw other renders..

[Victhor]

It's great to see this one moving!!! it going to be a very unique tower!

[lizayuen]

Building are really look great. This is going to be amazing.

------------
Gifts for Men

[econ_tim]

from today:

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr

[RobertWalpole]

It's good to see this beauty moved to the "Construction" section. It will join several other major towers planned for 57th Street including:

1. Carnegie 57;
2. 440 Park (which will rise on 57th and Park);
3. 225 W 57th; and
4. 3 Columbus Circle (which will be on 57th and B'Way).

Also, Torre Verre will be nearby on 55th.

[rencharles]

I thought that the works to this building, would only start in 2012 (according to the interview above, and other sources)

[HK999]

yeah me too. as i mentioned before, the actual tower will be built in 2012. the progress we see here, is just for the school, whole foods market and other stuff.

love the last render btw!

[rencharles]

Hmm... Understood

[RobertWalpole]

This project is really progressing. Once Phase 1 is complete, the piece of junk on the left will be razed and the tower (phase 2) will rise there.

NYCDAGREATEST
image hosted on flickr

[joshwebb]

I don't like how it gets thin near the top n then get wider :/ but nice height tho

[kingsc]

Damn this ugly thing still alive

[Eric Offereins]

Even worse, it is getting built.

[Manitopiaaa]

Originally Posted by RobertWalpole

It's good to see this beauty moved to the "Construction" section. It will join several other major towers planned for 57th Street including:

1. Carnegie 57;
2. 440 Park (which will rise on 57th and Park);
3. 225 W 57th; and
4. 3 Columbus Circle (which will be on 57th and B'Way).

Also, Torre Verre will be nearby on 55th.

For a hideous monstrosity, that is one good render of it

[desertpunk]

The Real Deal

Two Midtown schools complete exterior construction projects
March 18, 2011



From left: an image from the topping out ceremony and a rendering of 250 East 57th Street Two Midtown schools recently celebrated their topping off, developer World-Wide Group announced today. When completed, the schools, both located at 250 East 57th Street between Second and Third avenues, will be part of a 1 million-square-foot mixed-use project that will include 120,000 square feet of retail space and a 320-unit residential tower offering both condo units and rentals. The schools' interior is expected to be complete by fall 2012. Also planned for the $700 million development is a 38,000-square foot Whole Foods, also expected to open fall 2012. The developer broke ground on the project last May, following a $100 million budget cut. TRD