Gary Barnett would agree.

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2012/05/...dential-tower/

JDS buys majority interest in Starwood project, plans residential tower
May 18, 2012 05:30PM
By Katherine Clarke

Starwood Capital's Barry Sternlicht
JDS Development Group, the company behind the recent conversion of the Ralph Walker-designed Verizon building on West 18th Street, has purchased a majority interest in a development site formerly owned by Starwood Capital at 105 West 57th Street for $40 million, the company told The Real Deal today.

The firm is planning to break ground on a new 100,000-square-foot, mixed-use retail and luxury residential project in the spring or early summer, a spokesperson for JDS said. The project, which will rise to over 50 stories between Sixth and Seventh avenues, will feature condominium units as well as a significant retail component, the spokesperson said.
Barry Sternlich’s Starwood Capital Group, which purchased the property in 2007 for $52 million, will stay on as a minority partner to develop the vacant site.

The development is slated for completion in 2014.

JDS declined to comment further on the details of the deal or the plans for the site. Starwood did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The site, which was previously occupied by the Ritz Fur Shop, was formerly owned by Investcorp and Ceebraid-Signal. Pre-recession, the partnership had announced plans to build a 35-story tower with 37 residential units, three lower floors of office space and ground floor and basement retail space. Those plans never materialized.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...014308158.html

New Plan for a Growth Area

May 18, 2012
By ALESSIA PIROLO

Took these last Friday. This building is going to be a pretty remarkable sliver if/when it is constructed as planned.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8150/7...259ffea7_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7225/7...6c20f3ed_b.jpg

Good news! New DOB filing (pdf): http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/BS...de=ES787029955

687' seems to be the final height. :yes: (see pdf page 1). Also the massing model shows an elegant design. (with setbacks!)

EDIT: Tower has 55 floors and is 687ft / 209m tall, please change thread title.

Great news! Hopefully this one starts construction very soon.

On a side note, in sbarn's pictures from Jun 1st, does anyone know anything about that red/brown brick building with scaffolding to the right of this towers site? Is it being torn down, or is that scaffolding merely there for renovations?

interesting sketch-up...

I think the red building will not be demolished. But I may be mistaken.

Anyway, great find hunser. From the last couple of articles posted by RW and NYG, sounds like this could get going soon. Psyched on yet another 200 meter tower for NY.

I think its only having facade renovations, according to the DOB documents the building remains.

This building looks like it will have some pretty impressive height for such a narrow plot. Very exciting! While the massing is quite promising, I'm slightly confused what the "half setback line" is... I've heard of a setback line, but not a "half" one. Anyone got an idea? Also, I hope this one doesn't have to go through similar approvals to Torre Verre if it needs approvals from DCP for encroaching beyond the setback plane. Anyway the diagram is below.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7212/7...03b04cfa_b.jpg

The red building is undergoing a conversion and I believe it's being re-opened as a hotel.

Thanks for the answers yankeesfan, sbarn, and babybackribs. I only asked because even though the red brick building is covered up, it looks like its a beautiful old building and would be a shame to tear it down. Good to hear it will be getting a new life as a hotel. Based on the location should be pretty high end. It and this new tower should compliment each other nicely.

687' with a width of 42' gives a 16.4 h/w ratio. That's higher than 432 Park, although it's not the slenderest tower in the city.
http://www.skyscraper.org/PROGRAMS/slender_program.htm

i don't get this project - 100,000 sqf over 50 stories? that footprint seems too small for even a tower running ultra high density reinforce concrete - surely this would have to run higher than any other tower in the city. sure to be built as-of-right, how will the egresses be managed, no underground parking?

the project just seems eccentric.

Relatively few projects in New York have underground parking, so in that respect this project is not unusual. As I posted above, there are other towers with comparable slenderness already built in NY, such as Skyhouse, One Madison Park, and 785 8th ave.

The vast majority of Manhattan residential highrises have no parking.

Egress is obviously subject to city code. I don't see why a skinny building would have more issues than fat buildings.

wow, the top floors of this tower will have barely more than 1,000 sq feet of space. What an interesting tower that will sneak up on most people.

It will be interesting to see what type of cladding they put on this tower. The more slender towers going up, the better. And no doubt the will be more, with the Manhattan market being what it is right now.

I see new sprinkler applications were filed with the DOB related to the tower construction just last week, really hope they get started on this one this fall. I think it will be a fascinating tower to see rise given its tiny site.

A few shots of the current state of the site. I'm clearly eager to see this one rise! :yes:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8038/7...cb24c499_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8310/7...9fa25547_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8317/7...4bd869e7_b.jpg
(photos by me)

renders

http://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.c...2-33-05-pm.png
http://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.c...2-34-39-pm.png


http://observer.com/2012/09/107-west...ry-apartments/


Please don't tell me those are balconies. Ew. Balconies look terrible.