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

[Onn]

That's pretty big news if a bank (that has only a little bit of office space in New York right now) is really involved! That's like the best tenant they could ask for! Banks in NYC almost always follow through and often with new construction (Goldman, Barclays, Bank of America, Citigroup). The Bank is where the money comes from to build the tower after all.

[NYguy]

^ Yeah, and it helps to show that Midtown still has that luster. With everything that's going on Downtown (there have been a lot of large signings there lately), and on the west side (also hot), the heart of Midtown has had a drought of new office construction (not counting smaller "boutique" buildings like 7 Bryant Park, and BofA's tower). For all it's vast inventory, the luster has slowly been fading away because of the lack of new, state of the are office towers being built there. Between this, and 425 Park (another smaller tower), some light will begin to shine there again. They need to get that rezoning passed to further it though. New York can be a classic, great city, and yet new, and state of the art at the same time.

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.

If they're thinking of a dramatic space opposite Grand Central (as shown in the mockup), they have to do it right...signage is ok, but you don't want to try and upstage Grand Central.

[Onn]

Originally Posted by NYguy

^ Yeah, and it helps to show that Midtown still has that luster. With everything that's going on Downtown (there have been a lot of large signings there lately), and on the west side (also hot), the heart of Midtown has had a drought of new office construction (not counting smaller "boutique" buildings like 7 Bryant Park, and BofA's tower). For all it's vast inventory, the luster has slowly been fading away because of the lack of new, state of the are office towers being built there. Between this, and 425 Park (another smaller tower), some light will begin to shine there again. They need to get that rezoning passed to further it though. New York can be a classic, great city, and yet new, and state of the art at the same time.

Well for the last few years the summer has been gangbusters for major announcements in New York City. This year is seems like its going to be more bonkers than usual, with more outrageous surprises. One more reason to love the Summer!

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Onn

Well for the last few years the summer has been gangbusters for major announcements in New York City. This year is seems like its going to be more bonkers than usual, with more outrageous surprises. One more reason to love the Summer!

Yeah, even though I knew this one would be moving forward, I didn't expect this kind of news, this soon. Still a way to go before it's getting built, but it seems the dam has burst on new office tower construction moving forward. Just when we were getting used to the residential supertall construction dominating the action. I think if we get a major announcement about the Tishman/Hudson Spire site, I may lose it...

[Blaze23]

^^^ to your point about office buildings making a comeback, this to me is more exciting than watching those huge condos going up (although I love pretty much all of them). Guess I'm nostalgic to office buildings being the most imposing towers in the city. Besides, next time I have out of state visitors, I'll take more enjoyment into pointing at that humongous tower and saying "this is financial juggernaut tower" rather than "this is where a bunch of rich people live".
Now come alive Hudson Spire and 2WTC!

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by NYguy

Yeah, even though I knew this one would be moving forward, I didn't expect this kind of news, this soon. Still a way to go before it's getting built, but it seems the dam has burst on new office tower construction moving forward. Just when we were getting used to the residential supertall construction dominating the action. I think if we get a major announcement about the Tishman/Hudson Spire site, I may lose it...

Would the rezoning allow them to build taller?

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Submariner

Would the rezoning allow them to build taller?

The rezoning would allow for a greater FAR on site, meaning more of the building could be built than allowed as is now.

I hope they are still planning the public spaces at the top. The view from above, looking down on the Chrysler and the abundance of other nearby skyscrapers will be amazing.


And of course, a spire, or spired design would be welcome here (left side of photo)...

[NYguy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/30/ny...inal.html?_r=0

65-Story Tower Planned Near Grand Central Terminal


By CHARLES V. BAGLI
MAY 29, 2014

A developer plans to erect a 65-story skyscraper directly west of Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan that would soar 1,200 feet above 42nd Street, 150 feet taller than the landmark Chrysler Building, under a proposal being negotiated by the de Blasio administration.

The tower, on the block bound by 42nd and 43rd Streets, between Vanderbilt and Madison Avenues, would be the corporate home for TD Bank, a major financial institution currently located in New Jersey, if all goes according to plan.

Just as important, the project would transform the area around Grand Central by creating an underground connection between the new skyscraper and the terminal, as well as a public waiting room in the lobby of the tower for commuters using the station. It would also turn a stretch of Vanderbilt, between 42nd and 43rd, into a pedestrian plaza.

The tower, which would be built by the company SL Green Realty Corporation, is one element of a plan by the de Blasio administration to allow for the development of new, taller office towers in one of New York’s premier office districts, while addressing the need for immediate transportation improvements in and around Grand Central.

In the first stage, the city is proposing to begin reviewing a zoning change to what it is calling the Vanderbilt corridor, from 42nd to 47th Streets. If approved, developers would be allowed to build far larger buildings than currently permitted in exchange for substantive transportation improvements.

The city plans to begin the approval process for the zoning changes in the fall.

SL Green, the city’s largest commercial landlord, has long sought to build the 65-story tower on the 42nd Street block it owns. The company, as well as any other developers wanting to build in the area, would have to go through the city’s land use review process.

At the same time, the city plans to begin working with community groups, property owners and others on a proposal to make it easier to build taller towers throughout the entire East Midtown area.

[Submariner]

That is exciting news.

[yankeesfan1000]

Nice to see the city working with the developer to essentially get this fast tracked.

[Zapatan]

Nice!

Hopefully 1200' is to the roof and not a spire

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

Nice!

Hopefully 1200' is to the roof and not a spire

It looks like I needn't worry

[NYguy]

WSJ

http://www.4-traders.com/SL-GREEN-RE...tral-18519388/

SL Green Realty : Zoning Change Would Allow Tower Near Grand Central


05/29/2014
By by Laura Kusisto and Eliot Brown

Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration may rezone a single street in the Midtown East area, allowing one of the city's largest developers to move forward with an office tower as large as 1.6 million square feet, according to two people familiar with the matter.

City officials have discussed rezoning Vanderbilt Avenue, a five-block street that stretches along the west side of Grand Central Terminal, from East 42nd Street to East 47th Street. The administration would then pursue the rezoning of the rest of the area at a slower pace with more community consultation, the people said.

That would allow SL Green Realty Corp. to build a tower it calls 1 Vanderbilt Avenue, according to the people familiar with the matter.

The developer, which owns the block bounded by Vanderbilt and Madison avenues and by East 42nd Street and East 43rd Streets, is in talks with Canadian financial firm Toronto-Dominion Bank about leasing a large amount of space at 1 Vanderbilt, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

A spokesman for Mr. de Blasio didn't respond to requests for comment, nor did a spokesman for Local City Council Member Daniel Garodnick or a spokeswoman for the Department of City Planning.

At an event last week hosted by the Citizens Budget Commission, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen said that within a couple of weeks the administration planned to announce a time frame for the rezoning. She said the administration wanted to allow time to create consensus around the proposal, which would like take a year or two.

But she also said it was working with SL Green to ensure the developer's project can move forward in a timely way.

"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. And so we're actively in discussions with them, with Councilman Garodnick, and the planning department about how that can move forward to meet the timeline of that," she said.

[tyleraf]

It's exciting to see progress on this tower. It has a great design and will make a nice impact on the midtown skyline. Plus New York can never have too many spires. I'd love to see a night render of this one.

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

New Tower in Rezoned Midtown East May Top Chrysler Building
Friday, May 30, 2014, by Hana R. Alberts

The rumors were true. Developer SL Green will, in fact, go ahead with its proposal to build a 65-story tower just west of Grand Central station—one with up to 1.6 million square feet of office and retail space inside that would rise about 1,200 feet, which is 150 feet taller than the Chrysler Building, its Art Deco neighbor to the east. The Times and the Journal both reported SL Green's tower-tastic plans for 1 Vanderbilt Avenue, which looked very likely last year but were thrown into doubt after Midtown East rezoning—a.k.a. that controversial piece of city legislation that would have allowed One Vandy to be so damn tall—wasn't approved before the end of Bloomberg's tenure.

But the rezoning plan lives—albeit in another form. Today, Bill de Blasio and area councilmember Dan Garodnick announced preliminary plans for a reincarnated rezoning plan for the area.s per a press release from the mayor's office, a short-term zoning change for the five-block stretch west of Grand Central that is Vanderbilt Avenue (between Park and Madison from 42nd to 47th streets) would allow SL Green to erect One Vanderbilt. (These could be approved as early as this fall.) Meanwhile, zoning amendments for the rest of the neighborhood would roll out over the longer term. In official jargon:

First, the department will advance a zoning proposal to allow for larger state-of-the-art buildings along Vanderbilt Avenue that would provide specific, significant and upfront public infrastructure upgrades. The initiative is designed to ensure that property owners provide for much-needed improvements at Grand Central Terminal to relieve subway station bottlenecks and create new public open space sought by local stakeholders. The changes will undergo a full public review. SL Green – the owner of a large site at Vanderbilt Avenue and East 42nd Street – will likely be the first applicant for this new zoning special permit, with a proposal to deliver vital pedestrian and subway improvements concurrent with the construction of a major new office building across from the Terminal.
According to the Times, in exchange for being allowed to erect its lofty Kohn Pedersen Fox-designed tower, SL Green will be giving back to the community in the form of 1) an underground connection between the One Vanderbilt and the terminal; 2) a public "waiting room" in the lobby of the tower for commuters; and 3) a pedestrian plaza on Vanderbilt between 42nd and 43rd. SL Green's CEO also told the times it would spend $100 million on transit infrastructure, which would help alleviate congestion in an area mainly served by the overburdened 4/5/6 line.And that's not all, folks. The rezoning of Vanderbilt Avenue leaves the door wide open for development beyond SL Green's. Namely, the Times points out, at two sites: "a Madison Avenue building owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority [at 341, 345 and 347 Madison Avenue], and the Roosevelt Hotel." WSJ adds the currently 22-story Yale Club into the mix of possible development sites. It's not like the owners of those have proposed anything yet, but the rezoning's allowances to build big in a time of real estate hot-ness, even if they have to pay out to improve the neighborhood's transit and infrastructure in return, will likely prove alluring.

All of these towers will have to pass through ULURP, the city's land-use review process, and all reports emphasize that the community (which has been rather outspoken against rezoning in the past) will be heavily consulted. Brace, Midtown East.

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/0...r_building.php


http://ny.curbed.com/uploads/KohnPed...pped-thumb.jpg

[Submariner]

But think about the children! How are the trees in Bryant park going to grow with this giant 1%er tower blocking them!!! Rich greedy developers are destroying the character and culture of the city!!!!

Seriously though, how nice will it be to walk to Bryant Park and look to your left to see the BofA tower, then look to your right and see this and the Chrysler building. Fantastic.

[NYC2ATX]

Honestly, I used to go to Grand Central a lot just because when I was living in New York; it was one of my favorite places in the city...but the Modell's building across the street, the building this will replace and what I called it because of the unseemly sports store on the corner, was such an antithesis to the gorgeous grandeur of GCT.

IMHO, people sometimes glorify all pre-war design and constructions without any discerning taste whatsoever. Every architectural movement and period of history has its hits and misses, and not every beaux-arts, neoclassical or deco building is necessarily a gem, as with post-war movements. I never cared for the building because it's blocky and oppressive and makes the streets around it feel tight and choked. People focus so much on the height of these new buildings that they neglect to appreciate the breathable openness of modern office towers, particularly in their lobbies. This will make the street feel much more open and be a much more worthy neighbor to one of the world's great rail terminals.

[Onn]

This building is incredible! So very New York, I love it! New York's construction boom just reached a new apex of excitement.





http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/0...r_building.php

[King DenCity]

so i would say we need a new diagram... but this still probably isn't the final design.

[Hudson11]

It's probably close to the final design. This design has existed for around 2 years now without changes. Construction is close on the horizon with a tenant (TD Bank) all but snagged.



We also don't know the height specifics, 1200 ft can be the roof height or the spire height. In the renderings the tower is pretty imposing, so i'm guessing this is what they're using for height at the moment.