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

[NYguy]

Site 6....hopefully we will keep the advertising the lightens up the block...



https://www.instagram.com/p/Cbc13tdLLjn/

[NYguy]

Site 1.....



https://www.instagram.com/p/CbgKi-Plm_4/

Built in 1953, 320 E. 31st St. is one of the few mid-century buildings in the Penn Redevelopment zone (ie slated for demolition). We did some digging and discovered that this handsome 4-story building played a significant role in electronics history as former home of the RCA Institutes — America’s oldest radio school!

In 1909, the Marconi Institute was founded as the first school in the country to train wireless radio operators. It was renamed the RCA Institute after World War I, when the Radio Corporation of America was founded.

In 1974 the school became Technical Career Institute (TCI), which closed its doors in 2017 after financial trouble. The building is, for the short time being, a campus of Touro College. Touro College itself is notable as the largest private University in the country with Jewish roots.

Cool building, great history … worth saving!

Nothing cool about it.

[NYguy]

https://nypost.com/2022/04/07/ny-cla...n-skyscrapers/

NY says no ‘public dollars’ going to Penn Station skyscrapers — but tax breaks likely


By Bernadette Hogan and David Meyer
April 7, 2022

No taxpayer money is going to the private developers slated to helm proposed skyscrapers around Penn Station, state officials claimed in a letter obtained by The Post — even as they prepare to negotiate secretive tax breaks with Vornado Realty Trust and other property owners.

“There will be no public dollars provided to Vornado or any private developer as part of the proposed project,” the head of the state’s economic development agency wrote in a March 29 letter to state senators.

But the letter also said the state plans to negotiate site-by-site “PILOT” agreements for each of the eight skyscrapers along similar lines to the huge tax breaks the city gave the developers of Hudson Yards.

“We anticipate PILOT paid by the developments in the [Penn Station] area to be commensurate with PILOT or property taxes paid by similarly situated properties in Midtown West,” the letter from Empire State Development President Hope Knight said.

The renovation of Penn will cost around $7 billion, according to ESD’s letter.

Layla Law-Gisiko, the local land use chair and a candidate for state assembly, said the state should unlink the train station and skyscrapers — and has the luxury to do so thanks to an incoming infusion of money from President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill.

MTA officials said last week they are seeking to fund up to 80 percent of the station renovation with federal grants intended for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, of which Penn Station is the largest hub.

“There is $35 billion through a grant program that would be allocated by FRA, specifically earmarked for the Northeast Corridor,” Law-Gisiko said. “There is still reluctance from key players to actually admit that the feds are coming to the rescue.”

[NYguy]

https://gothamist.com/news/state-nyc...-redevelopment

State: NYC will be 'made whole' without losing tax revenue after Penn Station redevelopment


BY STEPHEN NESSEN
APRIL 8, 2022

....In the letter, president and CEO designate Hope Knight said the hefty price tag for the upgrades would be offset in part by revenues from the projects, and that New York City would not lose any money upon its completion.

Knight said the expected cost of the “Penn reconstruction,” which includes the actual train station improvements, such as new entrances and a skylight, would be $7 billion. The expansion of Penn Station, which features adding more tracks, would cost $12 billion, she said. The revenue from the projects would help fund those costs and other upgrades to Midtown, like eight acres of open space, she said.

“The City would be made whole for existing property taxes, adjusted annually, in the Project Area,” Knight wrote in the letter..

Budget watchdog Nicole Gelinas with the Manhattan Institute read the letter and said it didn’t confirm whether the developers would have to pay current and future property taxes in full.

“It is not too paranoid to surmise that the state is contemplating some sort of temporary gap payment to the city, especially as it also says PILOTs [Payments In Lieu of Taxes] to be paid would be comparable to other Midtown West properties. Does that mean Hudson Yards?” Gelinas said.

Hudson Yards received around $5.6 billion in subsidies from the PILOT program, which allows developers to avoid paying city taxes by paying a fee to the state.

Gelinas added, “It is a highly convoluted way of doing something fairly simple, building office buildings and maintaining transit. No need to strip a large swath of commercial Midtown off the tax rolls. Creating yet another special district, such as the [World Trade Center] or Hudson Yards, when such special districts don't have great track records, either fiscally or aesthetically, is unwise.”

[NYguy]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CcGOdAKO5l7/

Endangered neon! All this neon signage is on buildings that will be demolished if the Governor's Penn Station redevelopment plan goes through. This plan will demolish over 40 buildings in the Penn Station neighborhood (none of which have anything to do with improving the functionality of Penn Station 🤔)

Neon is disappearing at a rapid pace in Manhattan, and we need these beauties!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CcMnTvxMyf-/

[MAC123]

I didn't realize Neon had such a passionate following, especially in NYC. The only place I've seen people get nostalgic for neon is old New Vegas.

[chris08876]

If they want Neon, they can go on Ebay and buy a neon lamp and than when it arrives, place the lamp on a table, plug it in and stick their faces 2 inches from the lamp and stare at it for hours until the image of neon is burned into their retinas. They can permanently enjoy neon. But in the meantime, the Penn Station district will rise.

First it was the folks worried about shadows in Central Park... now its the Neon. What else is next?

[Busy Bee]

They seem to be advocating preserving the signsnot the crummy buildings they're attached to.

That said I too would like to see more neon. Images of 30s-50s NY streetscapes are heartbreaking.

[mrnyc]

fyi the neon signage, or some of it, has been going to cincinnati lately -- like the clover deli neon sign in manhattan and palomba music sign in the bronx --

for once nyc is shipping things to ohio instead of the other way around lol:

https://www.americansignmuseum.org

[TonyNYC]

Neon sign article is a joke! 99% of those buildings can be knocked down for development and no one would miss them!

The only one that bothers me is St John's the Baptist Church.. it's a beauty that goes back to the 1860's!

http:sideways.nyc/2013/09/st-john-the-baptist-church-2/

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by chris08876

If they want Neon, they can go on Ebay and buy a neon lamp and than when it arrives, place the lamp on a table, plug it in and stick their faces 2 inches from the lamp and stare at it for hours until the image of neon is burned into their retinas.

LOL. Just goes to show no matter what, there are always people who don’t think you should touch or change anything. No matter how crappy it may be in reality. That block is a joke, and not will not be some huge loss.

[DCReid]

Originally Posted by NYguy

LOL. Just goes to show no matter what, there are always people who don’t think you should touch or change anything. No matter how crappy it may be in reality. That block is a joke, and not will not be some huge loss.

Maybe they can dedicate a floor of one of the new buildings to a Neon museum of NYC. Las Vegas has one: https://www.neonmuseum.org/?msclkid=...ad76992c7d1078

[bdurk]

I'd be really surprised if there was not a neon sign museum in NYC. There's one in Philly and we are obviously a much smaller city but it has a ton of really dope old neon signs.

I read something one time about how neon signs became super popular because they were so expensive when they first were created, so every bar and restaurant got one. Eventually they got way too popular and now are seen as kinda trashy. So if you're in a place with 5 neon signs on each block (looking at you, Wildwood, New jersey) it's most likely not the finest place around.

[MAC123]

This is surprising to me. Tbh with you guys the only place I've ever associated with neon was Las Vegas. And Ukraine but that was just neon gas for semiconductor manufacturing.

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by MAC123

This is surprising to me. Tbh with you guys the only place I've ever associated with neon was Las Vegas.

Huh? Have you seen a single old photo of any city?

[Busy Bee]

The Artcraft Strauss archives and collections are a treasure trove but it's not run as a museum and as far as I know not open to the public.

[MAC123]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Huh? Have you seen a single old photo of any city?

Yes I have. You'll be surprised to learn that most old photos (that I have seen) don't have neon signs in them. Or at least, most old photos that I have seen. I don't spend my time going to look at old photos of cities, that sounds extremely boring. I can vaguely remember seeing something about Times Square having neon, but that was in a documentary which was focusing more on the history of the 20s or something like that.

[Busy Bee]

Wtf

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by DCReid

Maybe they can dedicate a floor of one of the new buildings to a Neon museum of NYC. Las Vegas has one: https://www.neonmuseum.org/?msclkid=...ad76992c7d1078

Something like that would belong in Times Square, which was a neon mecca.

If it’s just bright lights and signage they want to see, there will be plenty of that here as well.

[NYguy]

This is the guy who was practically foaming at the mouth over Amazon’s headquarters in Queens…


https://www.politico.com/news/2022/0...-plan-00025385

Former Council speaker advising Vornado on controversial Penn Station plan
As the Hochul administration advances a new iteration of the proposal with the prominent developer Vornado, Corey Johnson is counseling the builder on the plan.





By JANAKI CHADHA
04/18/2022

In 2018, when former Gov. Andrew Cuomo floated a proposal for new towers around Penn Station to help fund upgrades to the rundown transit hub, then-City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said the plan “must be stopped.”

Now, as the Hochul administration advances a new iteration of the proposal with the prominent developer Vornado, Johnson — who left elected office in December and has since started the lobbying firm Cojo Strategies — is counseling the builder on the plan.

“I’ve always demonstrated my love for New York City through my work, which continues to ring true as I help advise on the most important and complicated infrastructure project before our city today that will impact hundreds of thousands of working New Yorkers,” Johnson said in a statement to POLITICO.

The plan, which is being overseen by the state’s economic development agency, would provide tax breaks to Vornado in exchange for the firm financing upgrades to the rail station. Johnson’s involvement in favor of the proposal is a departure from his prior decision to distance himself from the industry by swearing off donations from developers and landlords. It’s also a change from his previous concerns about the same state process that’ll govern the Penn Station project, which was part of his opposition to the Amazon deal in 2018.

“He really ran on an anti-conflict of interest platform by refusing to take real estate money, which I thought was very brave and laudable,” said Layla Law-Gisiko, a critic of the proposal and land use chair for Manhattan Community Board 5. “It is surprising that there would be such a shift in focus.”

The controversial Penn Station plan, which falls within Johnson’s former Council district, envisions up to nine new skyscrapers of largely office space around the transit hub. Vornado would be a prime beneficiary of the deal as the majority owner of most of the sites in the proposed development area.

The proposal would be the biggest development project in the city’s history if approved. It is moving forward through a state process that circumvents the city’s lengthy land use review procedure. The city procedure requires approval by the Council. The Penn Station redevelopment will go through the same process the state was slated to use to advance ill-fated plans for a new Amazon headquarters in Queens — which Johnson opposed at the time, in part because the Council was cut out of it.

“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,” Johnson said in 2018 of Penn Station plans introduced by Cuomo. “We’re talking no environmental review process and zero input from New York City. It’s not fair to this city, which must be able to control its destiny. And it’s not fair to the public, who will be denied any type of legitimate review process.”

In the statement provided to POLITICO Wednesday, Johnson said public meetings that have happened over the last four years have resulted in more local input.

“This project has had robust community engagement as the General Project Plan moved forward, including more than 16 public [Community Advisory Committee Working Group] meetings with elected officials and advocates as well as dozens of other forums with community members, residents and other key stakeholders,” Johnson said.

Johnson said he’s proud to join several unions, Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams “in supporting a project that will create thousands of prevailing wage jobs, add significant public realm improvements throughout the surrounding district and transform the nation’s busiest train station into a modern commuter hub for the people.”

The exclusion of the City Council from a major development deal was among Johnson’s concerns when he opposed the Amazon deal in 2018, in addition to tax breaks the company was slated to receive and its record on labor issues.

“Amazon is one of the richest companies in the world, but you can’t put a price on community input, which has been missing throughout this entire process,” Johnson said in a statement at the time. “I find that lack of engagement and the fact that the negotiations excluded the City Council – which is elected by New Yorkers to guide land use projects with communities in mind – extremely troubling.”