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[NYguy]

http://www.nysun.com/article/55231

Extell Moves To Get a Piece of a Hotspot in the Making

By ELIOT BROWN
May 25, 2007


With a vision for the Hudson rail yards slowly taking shape, a top developer has plans to build a 600,000-square-foot mixed-use tower across the street, marking an early entry into the hotspot-to-be of Midtown West.

The Port Authority yesterday approved the sale of a 7,300-square-foot sliver of land to Extell Development for $17.1 million, moving the giant developer a step closer to construction on the site, which sits between 30th and 31st streets east of 10th Avenue.

A spokesman for Extell said the company is likely to soon begin construction work for the building, which will contain residential and commercial space and a hotel. Within the land transfer, Extell left a provision for a skyway that would run across the street to the High Line, the planned park to be built on elevated rail tracks.

The building would be one of the few early arrivals to the gradually transforming Hudson Yards district that runs on the West Side between about 28th and 42nd streets, an area that was rezoned to encourage new, denser development in 2004. Anchored by such city- and state-led projects as the planned development of an expanded Javits Center, a new train terminal by Pennsylvania Station, and the Hudson rail yards complex, the area promises to be almost unrecognizable in 15 years, and developers are slowly buying up land.

For Extell and the other few early developers that trickle in, real estate experts say being the first to build can be costly.

"The first project that goes up always takes a hit because you're taking the most risks — you have unestablished market rents," an analyst at Real Capital Analytics, Daniel Fasulo, said. "There's a lot of major developers acquiring land there right now, but it's basically a game of chicken between your neighbors."

Extell is said to be one of five firms planning a bid for development of the rail yards, which run between Tenth and Twelfth avenues. The city and state foresee a giant complex of residential and commercial towers atop the yards, with a spacious park running east to west envisioned for the center of the development.

The state, which owns the site, intends to issue a request for proposals in coming weeks for the development. The bid to complete the complex could go to a single or a team of developers, officials have said. They would be required to build an extremely costly platform over the rail yards before constructing the towers.

[NYguy]

This could be the tower for site 728A of the Hudson Yards redevelopment plan....
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/hyar...nformation.pdf
(page 60)

Or the lot directly east. Both are directly south of the 450 W. 33rd:

[Jularc]

What is with all these stories and no renderings! I hate how these developers work in NYC. In other cities are usually anounce with some rendering. Just another tall tower in the city with no renderings yet! I just get so desperate! LOL!

Anyway, great news!

A spokesman for Extell said the company is likely to soon begin construction work for the building, which will contain residential and commercial space and a hotel.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Jularc

What is with all these stories and no renderings! I hate how these developers work in NYC. In other cities are usually anounce with some rendering. Just another tall tower in the city with no renderings yet! I just get so desperate! LOL!

Anyway, great news!

That's true. And this is another one to start work soon that we have no rendering of. That would make three along with Gehry's tower.

[NYguy]

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/200...rings_17m.html

Hudson Yards plot brings $17M

BY BRIAN KATES
Friday, May 25th 2007


The development of Hudson Yards on Manhattan's far West Side inched forward yesterday with the Port Authority's deal to sell a tiny sliver of land near the Lincoln Tunnel for $17.1 million.

The sale of the 7,300-square-foot parcel to Extell Development will allow the real estate giant to expand a massive commercial and residential high-rise on adjacent property.

The 25-foot wide vacant lot, at W. 30th and W. 31st, between Dyer and 10th avenues, is in the Hudson Yards Development District next to the High Line, a former elevated rail line being transformed into a park.

Under the deal, Extell will build a skywalk over the Lincoln Tunnel access road to the new park.

Extell representatives did not return calls for comment.

Hudson Yards – bounded by W. 30th to W. 42nd, from Eighth Ave. to the Hudson River – is the largest tract of land available for development in Manhattan.

Plans call for creating a new neighborhood with housing, commercial buildings, school, cultural facility and parking, much of it built on huge platforms over the Long Island Rail Road's West Side yards.

The Metropolitan Transporation Authority, which owns most of the land involved, said it will seek proposals from developers by early next month.

Extell is expected to bid, as are several other major developers, including Vornado Realty, Brookfield Properties and Tishman Speyer Properties.

[NYguy]

The sale of the 7,300-square-foot parcel to Extell Development will allow the real estate giant to expand a massive commercial and residential high-rise on adjacent property.

I take it that means they are adding the site to the already planned tower at site 728A of the Hudson Yards. It's not exactly clear.

[djvandrake]

$2,342 a square foot for raw land? Yikes!

Is this typical for the Manhattan?

Great news, but yeah, how about a rendering from those developers!

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by djvandrake

$2,342 a square foot for raw land? Yikes!
Is this typical for the Manhattan?

Great news, but yeah, how about a rendering from those developers!

Manhattan can be expensive, even on the west side. There may be a rendering out for the tower we just haven't seen. A lot slips under the radar. But this sits practically between two of the west side's largest developments - the MTA's railyard development, and Brookfields massive development over the open yards.

[NYguy]

http://www.nycondoblog.com/?p=171


A new Extell development at the old Stuart Dean building site

Overview

Extell is underway developing a new residential project on 10th Avenue btw 30th and 31st streets. The filing isn’t new (about a year old) but progress on construction has been quite slow. My guess is that this space is dealing with some operational bumps but should be up sometime during 2009. Before we jump into the details (or what is currently known) let’s talk for a moment about what Extell has been up to since bursting on the New York scene and what other stuff has been going on in this far west neighborhood.

Extell’s past few projects have been a bit confusing. While most of their end products are very impressive, the majority of their land acquisitions are in less established neighborhoods with a higher risk factor. My inclination is that Gary Barnett (President of Extell) has a clear vision which divides him from the similarities of other developers. If you have enough faith in New York City condominium development (such as a willingness to create a blog about it…) you know that Manhattan still has a ways to go in terms of residential development. Barnett has the common sense of buying up plots of land that are less expensive in exchange for potentially earning a larger profit a few years down the road. The monstrous Trump site on the upper west side is a perfect, early example of this Extell practice. Trump was infuriated after the 77 acres were sold for about $1.8 billion because Extell had better intuition about the usage of the space.

Extell also did the Orion recently (a massive condo on west 42nd street) and 2633 Broadway (@ 99th street) which was made famous by a building collapse which occurred while clearing out the space for development.

Units and Pricing

The details of this development aren’t well known. I plan on doing some research here and updating shortly.

Area
Let’s be realistic: this isn’t a plot of land you’d drive by and feel enticed. In fact, its a very baron area, near the Hudson yards, south of the Jacob Javitz center with blocks full of factories and a whole bunch of nothing. The site was previously inhabited by Stuart Dean, a property maintenance and restoration firm, but has been cleared down. Ron Solarz of Eastern Consolidated Properties sold the land for Stuart Dean a couple of years ago. The neighborhood is badly in need of the construction facelift which we’re all waiting for.

The city made some zoning changes a few years back to potentially accommodate a football stadium which would also double as a sports complex which could help boost the chances at NYC making a bid for the 2012 Olympic Games. The stadium and the Olympics are no longer a reality, but Extell still sees potential created by the new zoning. This includes a possible subway expansion and the ability to build very high (great views) and mix in some commercial and some hotel space. I’d say we’re looking at 2010-2012 until this area is anywhere near what Extell would need to sell residential space here for $1,500/foot.

[NYonward]

Originally Posted by djvandrake

$2,342 a square foot for raw land? Yikes!

Is this typical for the Manhattan?

Great news, but yeah, how about a rendering from those developers!

It's more meaningful as $/sf of buildable square footage. At $2342 per buildable square foot, it's not a good deal.

[GFSNYC]

$17.1m? Looks like a so-so deal now, but Extell could drag its feet while locking in some construction costs/contracts now. If I had the money, I'd buy it up in a heartbeat. By the time a smallish 20-30 story residential goes up, the entire place would be a construction site, not a great place to live. Under the radar indeed, mediocre short term buy, phenominal long term find.

[NYguy]

With a vision for the Hudson rail yards slowly taking shape, a top developer has plans to build a 600,000-square-foot mixed-use tower across the street, marking an early entry into the hotspot-to-be of Midtown West.

A spokesman for Extell said the company is likely to soon begin construction work for the building, which will contain residential and commercial space and a hotel. Within the land transfer, Extell left a provision for a skyway that would run across the street to the High Line, the planned park to be built on elevated rail tracks.

Residential, commercial, and hotel is a lot to cram into that space. It's surprising that they would put commercial space there so soon, unless its just retail.

As far as a connection to the high line, it remains to be seen if that northern portion will be preserved.

[antinimby]

Originally Posted by NYguy

I take it that means they are adding the site to the already planned tower at site 728A of the Hudson Yards. It's not exactly clear.

The logical conclusion I can draw is that they just purchased from the Port Authority an adjacent lot next to the Stuart Dean building site that Extell had already owned.

From the air, this should make it much clearer:

[Scruffy]

Holy shit. I was just there today and got pictures and was going to bring the news that Extell has signs up. damn. But yes, the first satellite pic is wrong. the one directly above is right. Its not a big site at all. So the fact that its going to be 700k sq feet bodes well for a 500-650 footer. I'm guessing. So I walked up and down every block of the west side area in nasty heat, but got good coverage. I found so many boutique hotels under construction, and got pics of the blocks that are going to be leveled. I'll filter them out throughout the week. It takes me a while.

But this Extell thing is awesome. I really thought that the Convention Center Hotel was going to be the first thing going. surprise.

[BayRidgeFever]

Cool, looking forward to it....I've been wondering about all the small hotels going up in the west side.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by antinimby

The logical conclusion I can draw is that they just purchased from the Port Authority an adjacent lot next to the Stuart Dean building site that Extell had already owned.

From the air, this should make it much clearer:

Yeah, that's kind of what I thought when they mentioned the lot was just 25 ft wide. This is what threw me off...

The 25-foot wide vacant lot, at W. 30th and W. 31st, between Dyer and 10th avenues, is in the Hudson Yards Development District next to the High Line, a former elevated rail line being transformed into a park.

Under the deal, Extell will build a skywalk over the Lincoln Tunnel access road to the new park.

I took that to mean building east, not south. But south makes much more sense to connect to the high line. It's still a very small lot. Brookfield's 2 planned residential towers will give it some company just around the block as far as residents go.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Scruffy

But this Extell thing is awesome. I really thought that the Convention Center Hotel was going to be the first thing going. surprise.

The Convention Center Hotel is supposed to start this year also, so it just may get a jump on this one. But Extell is only one of 3 bidding for that one, and at last report, their plans were for a 980 ft hotel.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Scruffy

the first satellite pic is wrong. the one directly above is right.

By the way, these pics are of the same location, just different angles:





But they're just meant for location purposes. This is probably more likely the updated version of what you saw:

[Scruffy]

Originally Posted by NYguy

By the way, these pics are of the same location, just different angles:

No you are right, i thought you were marking the territory with that circle thing in that first pic which is why i held my breath. you marked out B&H at 33 and 9th. I am praying that that is spared. Im at that place near weekly. But I see that that was mere coincidence.


According to this:


Which is the other site that Extell owns that may be connected via bridge?

The largish building to the south i saw to be post office related. its hulking and nasty and if thats to go, raises another question about Moinahan. When the plan was first announced long ago, the new penn station would be in the eastern half of Farley and the post office would retain the western half for their needs. Now with the introduction of MSG there, where is the post office going to conduct their business. Are we going to be left without a central post office. should we go out and rebuild a Grand Central Post Office if for nothing more than ego. These type of city institutions should reflect the grandness of the city and we shouldn't be just left with satellite P.O.s in all the neighborhoods.

The building to the north of that marked Extell site is the headquarters for Associated Press, PBS, and im pretty sure where MTA keeps its subway control center. Its a nasty hulk of a building that i have hoped would be razed and redeveloped long ago, before the west side stadium deal went bellyup. That is a huge footprint that could easily I think hold the needed trading floors an office building might need. And Across 10th ave and alongside the high line is an industrial site. I forget the name, and im not entirely sure if it was MTA related or not. Directly north of that you have a low rise and a long driveway of parked cars. Both are rail yard and MTA related.

[antinimby]

Here's my attempt at summarizing the details we know so far, visually:

Originally Posted by NYguy

The sale of the 7,300-square-foot parcel to Extell Development will allow the real estate giant to expand a massive commercial and residential high-rise on adjacent property.

Originally Posted by NYguy

Under the deal, Extell will build a skywalk over the Lincoln Tunnel access road to the new park.

Hope that makes it clearer.