NEW YORK | Empire Station District | 9 Towers (18-20 msf)| FT | FLOORS

[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...lasio-outraged

Cuomo pushes Penn Station district takeover; de Blasio outraged
Deputy mayor objects as governor seeks huge towers to pay for transit-hub improvements


By Daniel Geiger
March 28, 2018

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is seeking sweeping powers to take control of the Penn Station area to spur the construction of huge towers and pour the proceeds into improving the long-maligned transit hub.

According to a document leaked by sources that outlines the legislation, the state’s Urban Development Corp.—a subsidiary of the Cuomo-controlled Empire State Development Corp.—would create a development district from Eighth to Sixth avenues and from West 34th to West 32nd streets, as well as to West 30th Street west of Seventh Avenue.

In the zone, the state would seek the authority to supersede city environmental and land-use reviews that normally dictate development. The governor also wants the unfettered right to condemn and seize property. The state could also gain the power to increase zoning in the area to encourage the construction of towers of unprecedented height and bulk.

According to sources, the state would capture potentially billions of dollars of additional tax revenue from the larger properties built in the neighborhood and then use those funds to make sweeping fixes to Penn Station.

The prospect of having the state take control of the area surrounding the transit hub and remaking it to harvest billions of dollars was met with outrage by city officials.

“This basically usurps all previous approaches in which the city and state worked collectively to develop neighborhoods and projects,” Alicia Glen, the city’s deputy mayor for economic development, said. “This basically gives the state unlimited authority to build anything they want. And not only that, this is the first time I have ever seen a situation where it would have the ability not to comply with the basic environmental-review process.”

“If this goes through, the state will be able to do whatever it wants, whenever it wants, in one of the busiest sections of Manhattan. We’re talking no environmental review process and zero input from New York City," City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said in a statement. "This plan must be stopped.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...icle-1.3902346

Cuomo pitches eleventh-hour plan for state control of land near Penn Station

By Glenn Blain

According to a draft of a proposal circulating Tuesday and Wednesday, Cuomo’s plan would allow the state to take properties from Sixth to Eighth Aves. and 30th to 34th Sts.

But late Wednesday afternoon, Cuomo officials said the details of the plan were already outdated and that any new proposal in the budget would require all the usual approvals.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/n...velopment.html

Cuomo Seeks State Control of Penn Station Neighborhood


By JESSE McKINLEY
MARCH 28, 2018

By late Wednesday, the governor’s office was assuring lawmakers that the proposal, which was obtained by The New York Times, was merely a draft, and an early bid in what was expected to be heated negotiations over any redevelopment plan.

Wiley Norvell, a communications adviser in City Hall, said the city has been in talks for months with the state, the M.T.A. and Vornado, a major property owner in the Penn Station vicinity, over possible development plans for the area. But Mr. Norvell said that there had been no discussion of the sort of proposal that the Cuomo administration is now floating. He said the city first saw the proposal on Wednesday and did not get the text of the proposal from the governor’s office.

There were some supporters for the governor’s approach, as well. Kathryn Wylde, the president of Partnership for New York City, sent a statement late Wednesday saying that Penn Station “requires substantial investment of funds that the M.T.A. currently does not have.”

“The governor’s commitment to make this a state priority is a positive step forward on a project that will not happen without extraordinary intervention by the state,” Ms. Wylde said.

But the overall goal remained to turn Penn Station, long derided as a dark and dismal rail hub, into a modern facility, while also incorporating commercial, residential and mixed-use development surrounding it. In addition, such a project would provide jobs, increase the tax base and “enhance the recognition of the city and state as a worldwide center of commerce,” according to the draft proposal.

[NYguy]

a development district from Eighth to Sixth avenues and from West 34th to West 32nd streets, as well as to West 30th Street west of Seventh Avenue

A rough outline of where that would be...

[NYguy]

The draft proposal...

[antinimby]

I absolutely support Cuomo on this. This is what dumb NYC should be doing in many areas of the city. Sell development rights to use for infrastructure improvement but it so far has not taken advantage of this valuable source of revenue.

Of course, the narrow and NIMBY-minded NYC politicians are attacking it already.

[antinimby]

Furthermore it’s not even that big of an area that we are talking about here but yet if you were to listen to this Deputy Mayor Glen and City Council Speaker Johnson clowns, you’d think they are doing it all over the city.

[antinimby]

This is really simiialr to the Grand Central rezoning from a few years ago and Debozo was a huge fan of that. Now, because he didn’t think of it and has very little say it in, he is bashing it.

[NYguy]

It's amazing when you think about it, that the area around Penn Station has remained as under-developed as it has. This should have been taken on years ago.

Mayor Bloomberg got Hudson Yards pushed through, mayor de Blasio go Midtown East pushed through. Cuomo has long been on his building big push, this "new" New York they've been talking about, so I've been expecting something like this from him. I'm sure the City will get on board, despite the animosity between de Blasio and Cuomo. Things can't continue to stay the way they are, as they have been allowed to do for so long.

[yankeesfan1000]

While I'm not crazy about the prospect of the state having the ability to usurp local zoning/etc, the city brought this on themselves, rezoning the POS neighborhood around Penn to pay to improve Penn should have been done 15 years ago.

[Crawford]

Cuomo is 100% right. The city and Vornado have been fiddling for 20 years now, still with no action.

The Penn Station area needs to be redeveloped. Time for the state to step in and get things moving.

It's incredible that the neighborhood with the busiest train station on earth outside Japan, with the highest pedestrian counts in the Western world, with ownership almost completely in the hands of a a single mega-billionaire developer, cannot get anything going.

This should be the best location in NYC, with the densest concentration of towers.

[NYguy]

^ I agree.

Originally Posted by yankeesfan1000

While I'm not crazy about the prospect of the state having the ability to usurp local zoning/etc, the city brought this on themselves, rezoning the POS neighborhood around Penn to pay to improve Penn should have been done 15 years ago.

The state has always had that ability, it's how the WTC originally got built. The City wasn't on board with that initially, but came around.

The irony is that this is exactly what the city has done on both the east amd west sides - use towers to get improvements to those areas.

[NYguy]

As usual with tge NIMBYs, the prospect of height is threatening...


https://www.6sqft.com/governor-cuomo...-station-area/

Governor Cuomo looking to give the state control of Penn Station area


MARCH 29, 2018
BY MICHELLE COLMAN

Democratic lawmakers immediately fired back. Alicia Glen, NYC’s deputy mayor of housing and economic development, told the New York Times, “It completely erases any role for the city, local officials or the surrounding community. It’s beyond the pale.” She continued in an interview: “Can you imagine building four or five 100-story towers and not even doing a shadow study or a traffic study? You know, I’m not known as the biggest environmentalist in town, but Jesus Christ.”

Calm down.

[Dale]

Originally Posted by NYguy

As usual with tge NIMBYs, the prospect of height is threatening...


https://www.6sqft.com/governor-cuomo...-station-area/

Governor Cuomo looking to give the state control of Penn Station area


MARCH 29, 2018
BY MICHELLE COLMAN




Calm down.

I can imagine building four or five 100-story buildings.

I think it would be glorious.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Dale

I can imagine building four or five 100-story buildings.

I think it would be glorious.

But yeah, we'll get that pesky envirinmental review out of the way first. Because all it's gonna tell us is that Manhattan is already covered with an awesome amount of skyscrapers, a few more aren't gonna trigger Armageddon.


https://www.newsday.com/opinion/colu...ute-1.17725893

State officials told The Point Wednesday afternoon that the language was being revised and would ultimately allow for community input, a role for local officials and environmental review. But they said they did not have a new version available for release.

[Design-mind]

Does this mean that the Penn Tower on the Hotel Pennsylvania site is dead?

[Amanita]

As long as they keep their hands off of One Penn Plaza!
Still, something about this- giving the state sweeping powers to seize private property- doesn't sit well with me.

[Amanita]

https://commercialobserver.com/2018/...n-real-estate/

[JSsocal]

It'l be a good question what role vornado plays in all of this. Since they own the vast majority of the site. The one PP block needs a serious rethinking though, the 2 single story retail stumps on either end are abysmal.

If the planners at hand were forward thinking enough, a full teardown of One Penn would allow for the installation of new tracks north of Penn Station at the location of the existing LIRR concourse.

Gateways proposing new tracks on the block south of 30th and taking a small piece of the block across 7th avenue. That's a lot of smaller landowners/acquisition that'l cost a fortune for Amtrak or the state to buy out.

[Amanita]

Did you read the second article I linked to? Vornado's got plans for One Penn, and I suspect that any attempt by the state to commandeer it will be fought tooth and nail.
I'm pretty sure that One Penn is their most profitable building, and they're fixing to make it even more so.

[JSsocal]

Read it when the article came out, but if the state puts new air rights on the table/promises to rework Penn station that changes the equation. The asking rent in 1 Penn is paltry compared to HY right now and vornado is famously slow to act.

It would be different if this building was across the street, but functionally, Penn Station needs more platforms to accompany anything cosmetic they do to the building. And like I said Gateway plans to add it to the south, but getting that land is going to be messy, expensive, and take a generation. To me it'd be easier to make an arrangement with vornado to rework the property they own and give them generous air rights for something new on top.

[Amanita]

Somehow I can't see Vornado agreeing to take out its own bell cow, even if they were given rights to build someplace else, that's going to take years- years that they're not collecting rent. Improving the current building will allow them to jack up the rent they're asking too.