NEW YORK | One Vanderbilt | 1,401 FT | 58 FLOORS

[pico44]

This design is terrible. Every time I see a sketch or model, it amazes me that someone had enough bad sense to actually design it, and I want to look away in disgust. The fact that KPF seems to be doubling down on this idea breaks my heart. Please, somebody stop this trainwreck!

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I was thinking the same thing. The whole building is so bulky and needs more on top. It feels like it's missing a real spire.

Originally Posted by pico44

This design is terrible. Every time I see a sketch or model, it amazes me that someone had enough bad sense to actually design it, and I want to look away in disgust. The fact that KPF seems to be doubling down on this idea breaks my heart. Please, somebody stop this trainwreck!

I'm still confident they'll come through. It's still early in the game.

[NYguy]

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/articl...t-midtown-east

Developer pushes tower proposal, without Midtown East

By Dana Rubinstein
Apr. 14, 2014

A New York real estate developer whose plans for a skyscraper taller than the Chrysler Building next to Grand Central Terminal were delayed by the demise of Bloomberg's Midtown East rezoning, is now negotiating with the de Blasio administration for a path forward that does not entail a neighborhood-wide rezoning.

According to knowledgable sources, SL Green, which describes itself as New York City's biggest office landlord, has been talking to the city planning department about ways it can move forward with its proposal for a 65-story, 1.6 million square foot tower called 1 Vanderbilt, between 42nd and 43rd streets, without having to wait for a broader rezoning.

SL Green had no comment, though during a January earnings call, the publicly traded company hinted at this course of action.

“We are still moving ahead on all fronts with the expectation that this will be developed, the only difference being that as a result of whether the East Side zoning goes through or not, we may have alternate plans,” said Marc Holliday, the company’s C.E.O. “But I think we can accommodate that under several different scenarios, and that's what we are working through now.”

A spokeswoman for planning commissioner Carl Weisbrod said, “there are no updates at this time.”

But if SL Green succeeds in getting city approval to move forward on its own, it might further sap momentum for the Bloomberg-era neighborhood-wide rezoning known as Midtown East.

During his final year in office, Mayor Michael Bloomberg sought to allow taller buildings in a 73-block swath of Midtown anchored by Grand Central Terminal.

Over the long-term, the rezoning was expected to generate about 12 new skyscrapers. Since many would replace existing, aging buildings, the net increase in square footage was anticipated to amount to just 3.2 million.

In the near-term, only two skyscrapers were expected to rise: an L&L Holding Company tower at 425 Park Avenue designed by Norman Foster, and SL Green’s 1 Vanderbilt.

Money derived from the sale of development rights for those and other towers would be dedicated to infrastructure improvements.

The plan ended up dying a late-term death, thanks in good part to local Councilman Dan Garodnick's concerns that the city's promised infrastructure improvements were half-baked.

In the meantime, L&L is moving forward without the rezoning. If SL Green finds a way to do the same, two of the biggest cheerleaders for a neighborhood-wide rezoning may go silent, diminishing momentum for a project that both Garodnick and Mayor Bill de Blasio say is needed, and diminishing the prospects for that infrastructure-directed revenue.

When the original Midtown East plan fell apart, then mayor-elect Bill de Blasio promised to propose a new plan by the end of this year. So far, the de Blasio administration hasn’t made any obvious moves in that direction, despite a renewed effort by Garodnick to kickstart the process.

In March, Garodnick published an op-ed in the Gotham Gazette arguing that the rezoning is still needed. Thanks to the existing “antiquated zoning rules,” he pointed out that someone who demolishes a building in the city’s premier business district can only rebuild it to the same size if they keep 25 percent of the old structure.

“We don’t want to create a disincentive for people to rejuvenate buildings that are getting old and less useful,” Garodnick told me, during an interview at an East Village cafe on Friday.

“So at a minimum, we should be updating the zoning to get those buildings out of that bind," he said. "But at the same time, we should consider whether additional density is necessary to create an incentive for a building owner to rejuvenate their building.”

The Blasio administration “acknowledged" his op-ed, according to Garodnick, and "said they’ve started their thought process on this.”

I asked him if the administration was still committed to presenting a new plan by the end of this year.

“You should talk to them about that,” he responded.

Asked for comment, the planning department sent the following statement from Weisbrod, the same one it provided in March after that Garodnick op-ed: “The Department of City Planning is taking a fresh look at East Midtown and how best to strengthen the areas a world-class 21-century commercial district, consistent with community and city-wide needs.”

[NYguy]

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...545527834.html

Sky Is Limit for Air Rights in Manhattan
Average Price Paid for Space Above a Building Rose 47% Last Year



By Keiko Morris
April 23, 2014

The market for Manhattan air is heating up.

The average price paid in Manhattan for the transfer of air rights—the undeveloped space above a building—rose 47% in 2013 from the previous year, according to a report from Tenantwise Inc., a New York real-estate services and advisory company. As land prices rise, developers are moving to secure air rights to enable them to build towers with highly coveted, highly profitable upper-floor apartments. Building tall also renders construction costs more economical, experts said.

Air rights have matured into an indispensable financial component to a number of large developments. In some cases, developers have paid the same price a square foot for air rights—which are also known as transferable development rights—as they did to buy the land, said M. Myers Mermel, chief executive of Tenantwise.

Transferable development rights "are the top revenue producers in any building because they become the new upper floors," said Mr. Mermel. "You can get higher prices because top floors are the most expensive in any building."


City policy allows developers to build taller than they otherwise could have by buying rights from generally adjacent property owners. In some cases, developers will buy the rights from several nearby properties and package them together, allowing them to develop the lofty residences they want to sell.

About 40% of the 34 air-rights deals in 2013 in Manhattan were for residential condominiums, 36% for hotels and 16% for residential rentals, according to the report.

As a caveat, the report cites one mammoth deal excluded from its analysis: Vornado Realty Trust paid $3,868 a square foot for 3,936 square feet of air rights for its development site at 220 Central Park South. Vornado didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Extell Development Co. was the most prolific user of air rights. The company made seven deals for air rights in 2013. Together, they totaled 167,915 square feet or about 27% of the market, the report noted. Air rights have been integral for Extell's planned skyscraper at 225 W. 57th St., where Nordstrom plans to open its flagship Manhattan store. But air rights also provide money for the owners of landmark buildings—including Manhattan's historic churches—who find their revenue potential limited by development restrictions.

"A lot of the air rights we used were from landmark buildings," said Gary Barnett, founder and president of Extell. "If you didn't allow air-rights transactions, landmarks would have no place to go. They would not have the chance to get the economic value [from their building]."

Mr. Mermel said the rise in prices has policy implications that could affect development in Midtown East, the area around Grand Central Terminal. A proposal to rezone the area and allow for larger office towers was shelved last year. Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he planned to revisit the rezoning.

To pay for improvements to Grand Central and public spaces, the city had planned to charge developers about $250 a square foot for the rights to build larger buildings in the area. Mr. Mermel argues the city could charge more for the air rights now.

"The increase in air-rights value should spur Midtown East redevelopment and will result in millions more in revenue for the city and millions more for the sellers, especially not-for-profits like churches and synagogues," Mr. Mermel said.

The administration hasn't presented any specifics regarding Midtown East. "The department is taking a fresh look at East Midtown and is also considering the citywide issue of transferable development rights generally," a spokesman for the city's planning department said. "Both are complex issues that will require extensive analysis and consultation with a broad range of stakeholders."

[NYguy]

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/05/...ge-next-month/

Midtown East rezoning plans to reemerge next month
Alicia Glen: But "it’s going to be between a year or two before you see anything happen"






http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...sfp=3160509449

Mayor to unveil midtown east rezoning timeline


Andrew J. Hawkins
May 21, 2014

The plan for a massive rezoning of midtown east, which stalled in the waning weeks of the Bloomberg administration, will get a new lease on life next month. That is when Mayor Bill de Blasio will release his timeline for reinvigorating the effort, according to Alicia Glen, the deputy mayor for economic development and housing. In fact, speaking at a breakfast forum hosted by the Citizens Budget Commission on Wednesday, she revealed that the administration would release its timeline in about two weeks.

The project as initially proposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg aimed to rezone a more-than-70-block swath of midtown east to spur the construction of a new generation of bigger, state-of-the-art skyscrapers. By the sale of air rights that would allow developers to do just that, the city could, in turn, raise hundreds of millions of dollars for transit improvements in the area.

It's unclear how the de Blasio administration's plan will differ from his predecessor's proposal. The City Council and some preservationists and transportation advocates objected to that earlier plan. Among other things they said that the plan underpriced the air rights to be sold.

Ms. Glen said the administration would release its timeline in the "next week or two," but in a scrum with reporters after the event, she said the zoning would not take effect until 2016 at the earliest.

"That would mean we would obviously have the time to do all the work around consensus building on exactly how we should approach it, then get it certified," she said. "In real life, it's going to be between a year or two before you see anything happen."

She added, "It's not the number one thing we're working on right now, but we're going announce a process which will then give you a timeframe in which it will actually happen."

Asked how Mr. de Blasio's approach to the rezoning will differ from Mr. Bloomberg's, Ms. Glen said, "We want to make sure we do it in a way makes clear the infrastructure can be paid for in the sequence of events when you actually need the infrastructure to come online."

The subway would need to be able to service the projected growth in the number of commercial and residential tenants that would arrive as a result of the rezoning, she said. And paying for those upgrades in a way that "doesn't put additional burden on the city" needs to be planned out.

She declined to comment on the notion put forward by critics of the Bloomberg plan that air rights were being undervalued, but suggested that the city would seek to raise enough money in time to pay for upgrades to the area as quickly as possible.

"We want to look at a way where we can raise enough capital up front," Ms. Glen said. "It takes a long time to do those infrastructure improvements, so you really need to identify a source of financing up front."

When Mr. Bloomberg's plan died, SL Green Realty's plan to build a 65-story, 1.3 million-square-foot-office tower One Vanderbilt adjacent to Grand Central Station also ended. Asked if she saw One Vanderbilt as part of the overall rezoning, Ms. Glen said she has had "a lot of discussions" with Councilman Dan Garodnick, who represents the area, about the project.

"It's an incredibly exciting project," she said. "And it's a project that they've already identified a very high quality tenant that we would like to see come to New York."

Asked if that building could go forward independently of the Midtown east rezoning plan, Ms. Glen said, "I couldn't possibly comment."

On another matter she noted that the plan would not include much in the way of housing. "That is not a place where we're going to be concentrating our housing efforts."

With regard to housing, however, Ms. Glen revealed that the City Planning Commission would release by August or September an analysis of which neighborhoods the administration will concentrate its rezoning efforts on to support Mr. de Blasio's plan to build or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing. That process will include a plan to mandate the inclusion of below-market rate units in any development benefiting from a rezoning, also called mandatory inclusionary zoning.

That report will likely call for 12 to 15 neighborhoods to be rezoned, among them in East New York, a neighborhood Ms. Glen said is "very underbuilt."

During the forum, Ms. Glen also said the city would commit $350 million in its five-year capital plan for infrastructure improvements in Hunter's Point South in Long Island City, Stapleton in Staten Island, and Coney Island—three neighborhoods she said have "amazing housing potential."

[NYguy]

When Mr. Bloomberg's plan died, SL Green Realty's plan to build a 65-story, 1.3 million-square-foot-office tower One Vanderbilt adjacent to Grand Central Station also ended. Asked if she saw One Vanderbilt as part of the overall rezoning, Ms. Glen said she has had "a lot of discussions" with Councilman Dan Garodnick, who represents the area, about the project.

"It's an incredibly exciting project," she said. "And it's a project that they've already identified a very high quality tenant that we would like to see come to New York."

I'm intrigued by this. I wonder, who could it be?...BTW, plans for this tower never really "ended" as stated above.

[a very long weekend]

i still say that midtown east's rezone should be put on the back burner for several years to give the hudson yards every advantage to build out.

[Blaze23]

I think HY already benefited enough from the lack of new office space in midtown, just look at all the tenants they landed and those that are seriously looking into the area; same thing for the WTC and downtown for that matter if 3WTC gets the go ahead. I think it's more than fair game if the rezoning kicks in in 2016. I personally think they should let in begin sooner.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by a very long weekend

i still say that midtown east's rezone should be put on the back burner for several years to give the hudson yards every advantage to build out.

The original play was to delay this 5 years. But the Hudson Yards is on the verge of building out already. It's well on its way to being established as a 3rd business district in Manhattan (though technically still in midtown). That was the reasoning behind the delay. As with Downtown, there are companies that will not move to the west side. If they can lure a tenant, especially one from outside the city, it would be foolish to delay. New York's greatest asset is its office space, used to house the masses of corporations and workers. It should be up and firing on all fronts, Downtown, Midtown, West Side, even Brooklyn & Queens for back office space. There's no longer a reason to "freeze" anything, most certainly not in the city's number one business district where new office space is basically non-existent.

[Onn]

It's an attractive location in a new development. Who wouldn't want to be there? I hope this keeps moving forward, it is an exciting development for this area of the city!

[rlw777]

Originally Posted by a very long weekend

i still say that midtown east's rezone should be put on the back burner for several years to give the hudson yards every advantage to build out.

If rezoning happened today it would most likely be more than a year before the first project taking advantage of the air rights broke ground. But even if projects could start immediately I don't think it would have much effect on Hudson Yards. There are more obstacles to building in midtown east with guaranteed demolition costs and more nimbyism. And the neighborhoods have remarkably different advantages so they may not compete as directly as one might think. Also remember that the rezoning was expected to happen under bloomberg while many of the HY projects were being proposed.

[chris08876]

Exactly. It will take sometime before the whole area redevelops. De Blasio supports the rezoning so for now, its just a matter of patients. We will be so occupied with all the supertalls going up and the HY that this won't be a big concern waiting wise. Also, it will be a while before things start to go up due to the rezoning and it shouldn't impact the HY. Although I would like the WTC complex finally get the green light for full completion via tenants or financing (WTC2/3) but we will just have to wait and see. Hopefully the incompetent Port Authority stops sucking and finishes the project.

[Blaze23]

Guess now we know what company they were referring to.

TD Bank Considers NYC Expansion in New Manhattan Skyscraper
Plan Would Give Canadian Firm Block of Space in One Vanderbilt
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...78192381451808

Canadian financial firm Toronto-Dominion Bank TD.T +2.66% is eyeing an expansion in New York City and is considering becoming a principal tenant for a soaring new Midtown skyscraper across the street from Grand Central Terminal, according to multiple people briefed on the discussions.

The company would take a large block of space in a tower named One Vanderbilt being planned by landlord SL Green Realty Corp. SLG -0.04% The developer is still negotiating with the city over the size of the tower. But last year SL Green said it could include 1.6 million square feet of space, and renderings showed it soaring above the nearby Chrysler Building, which is 1,046 feet high.

The company's U.S. unit, TD Bank, has seen significant growth in recent years through acquisitions of small lenders and expansion of its retail banking.

"As TD grows in NYC, we assess our office spacing needs and continually explore the best office locations for our team," a spokeswoman for TD Bank said in an email sent Thursday. The U.S. unit is based near Philadelphia in Cherry Hill, N.J. She declined further comment.

The U.S. bank has numerous retail branches within New York City. But, at this point, it only has a small amount of office space. It is unclear if the bank is looking at locations other than One Vanderbilt.

Alicia Glen, New York City's deputy mayor for housing and economic development, spoke about SL Green's planned tower at an event on Wednesday hosted by the Citizens Budget Commission. "That's an incredibly exciting project," she said, according to a transcript provided by City Hall. "And that's a project that they also have identified a very high-quality tenant that we would very much like to see come to New York."

Ms. Glen didn't specify which tenant was looking at One Vanderbilt, but she indicated that the city was working with the developer to help the project move forward.

SL Green owns the entire block bounded by Vanderbilt and Madison avenues and 42nd and 43rd streets. The company, Manhattan's largest office landlord, has been in discussions with city officials about a zoning change to build the tower. At this point SL Green hasn't signed any leases for the project.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by rlw777

If rezoning happened today it would most likely be more than a year before the first project taking advantage of the air rights broke ground. But even if projects could start immediately I don't think it would have much effect on Hudson Yards. There are more obstacles to building in midtown east with guaranteed demolition costs and more nimbyism.

The NIMBYism won't matter with the zoning in place, but the site acquisitions to get a large enough footprint, and demolition adds to the time it would take to put something into play. The good thing for this site is that SL Green has worked for years to get the full block for this site.

Originally Posted by Blaze23

TD Bank Considers NYC Expansion in New Manhattan Skyscraper
Plan Would Give Canadian Firm Block of Space in One Vanderbilt
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...78192381451808

Didn't expect to get a reveal this soon, but you know the city doesn't want to miss this opportunity.



http://nypost.com/2014/05/22/td-bank...5-story-tower/

TD Bank could be main tenant in new 65-story NYC tower




TD Bank is headquartered in Toronto (pictured), but several US branches will be consolidated into the new location in Midtown Manhattan. President and CEO of TD Bank Ed Clark, right.


By Lois Weiss
May 22, 2014

TD Bank is in talks to move to a 65-story tower SL Green Realty Corp. has proposed for Madison Avenue and 42nd St. near Grand Central Terminal, The Post has learned.

The NJ-based bank would consolidate multiple divisions in the base of the planned 1.1 million square-foot building and would be its anchor tenant, according to sources briefed on the discussions.

The bank would also install a major flagship bank branch.

“It would include branding and signage and will really be somewhat dramatic,” said one source.

CBRE is the lead real-estate broker but the move would involve multiple bank divisions that are represented by other brokers.

SLG declined comment.

The project is tied to the stalled Midtown East rezoning that the de Blasio administration hopes to rework after making changes to address previous landmarking and other issues.

Alicia Glen, the deputy mayor for economic development, called it “an incredibly exciting project” in an interview with Crain’s New York Business.

Without identifying the tenant she added, “It’s a project that they’ve already identified a very high quality tenant that we would like to see come to New York.”

[Submariner]

A little commercial banking rivalry with BofA right down the road.

Too bad the BofA tower isn't taller. In my humble opinion, it's one of the nicest towers built in recent memory.

[King DenCity]

^I think most of us agree...

[NYguy]

The bank would also install a major flagship bank branch.

“It would include branding and signage and will really be somewhat dramatic,” said one source.

I wonder exactly what this means.

[Michael12374]

Originally Posted by Submariner

A little commercial banking rivalry with BofA right down the road.

Too bad the BofA tower isn't taller. In my humble opinion, it's one of the nicest towers built in recent memory.

I just can't take anything you say seriously with that profile picture haha

[Hudson11]

well, that area is no stranger to tall buildings with signage.



Though I'm guessing that has more to do with the street level.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Hudson11

well, that area is no stranger to tall buildings with signage.

Though I'm guessing that has more to do with the street level.

Well, this tower will serve as an extension of Grand Central at street level, but we'll see what can be done. We don't really want any signage hanging over the Chrysler. The city doesn't really allow that anymore. I noticed in some of the earlier mockups, a Times Square style video screen high above Vanderbilt.

But whatever the case, we may have a tenant, and designs can be finalized. And getting a signature tower on this part of Manhattan would be a huge win for any tenant.