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

[Duck From NY]

.

[ChiTownWonder]

This building reminds me of the Trans America Building.

[scalziand]

^Make sure proposed buildings are included too. The default view is just completed and under construction buildings.

[chris08876]

SL Green considering JV opportunities for One Vanderbilt

SL Green Realty is considering “joint venture alternatives” for its One Vanderbilt office tower, CEO Marc Holliday said during the real estate investment trust’s first-quarter earnings call Thursday.

“There’s real value to be created between now and the next 12 to 24 months” in the development of the 64-story, 1.6 million-square-foot Midtown East project, Holliday said, citing the support of Manhattan borough president Gale Brewer and the City Planning Commission.

A “robust” leasing pipeline driven by demand from financial services tenants has SL Green on track to exceed full-year leasing projections, executives said.

The REIT secured 44 Manhattan office leases totaling 466,248 square feet in the first quarter – which, in addition to the recent signings of Bloomberg and WeWork to Midtown office leases covering more than 390,000 square feet, “should allow us to meet or exceed this year’s goals,” Holliday said.

The company noted strength in leasing activity across the board, but pointed to the financial services sector as being “more active today than at any time in the last couple of years,” according to director of leasing Steven Durels.
Nine of SL Green’s 10 largest leases so far this year were secured with financial services clients, Durels said, including the Bloomberg lease at 919 Third Avenue and Franklin Templeton’s 126,000-square-foot commitment at 280 Park Avenue

“I don’t think it’s unique to our portfolio,” Durels said of the company’s leasing numbers for the year. “The brokers are out there telling their clients that the balance is shifting towards the landlords, that the market is rising and that they don’t see it slowing down in the near to intermediate future.”
Holliday cited SL Green’s focus on “structured-type, off-market deals” for acquisitions and noting that asset sales will be dictated by “growth trends in those assets over the next five, seven, 10 years.”

Regarding the company’s recent leases, executives said the company is “pretty excited about WeWork as a tenant and a business,” describing how the shared space provider has “a substantial amount of cash in the bank” and “substantial institutional backing.”

=============================
http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/04/...ne-vanderbilt/

[sparkling]

Proposed Grand Central tower clears final major hurdle
SL Green Realty agreed to invest an additional $10 million into public transit in exchange for the right to build 1 Vanderbilt, its 64-story tower.

Joe Anuta
May 5, 2015

SL Green Realty Corp.’s 1,400-foot-tall commercial tower proposed for an entire city block across the street from Grand Central Terminal was approved with some modifications Tuesday by a key City Council subcommittee, which also gave the green light to double the maximum size of buildings on four other blocks to the west of the transit hub.

A handful of approvals are still technically needed for the 64-story building, known as 1 Vanderbilt, along with the wider rezoning of the Vanderbilt Corridor, where the proposed tower will be situated. But the City Planning Commission and the full council are expected to approve both by the end of the month following Tuesday’s crucial vote.

The Vanderbilt Corridor rezoning "will open the door to additional density in exchange for much needed improvements to our transit system,” City Councilman Daniel Garodnick said in a statement following a thumbs-up from the City Council's Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises.

The proposal for the tower has gone through several changes during its public review process. And on Tuesday Mr. Garodnick announced that SL Green has now agreed to include in its building a second transit hall, along East 42nd Street, for commuters. The developer will also create additional space for pedestrian movement within the bowels of Grand Central.

The added improvements will cost SL Green $10 million, bringing the total price tag for public-space improvements it has committed to build to an estimated $220 million, according to Mr. Garodnick’s office.

But while the tower and rezoning have passed muster with the city, the owner of Grand Central Terminal has vowed to take the issue to the courts. Andrew Penson owns the unused development rights above the landmarked transit station, which he believes SL Green should have purchased to boost the size of its project, rather than getting them from the city by agreeing to make improvements to public infrastructure. He has argued that such an arrangement has violated his rights as a property owner, and many observers believe that with the pair of proposals nearing the finish line, the time is ripe for him to sue.

On Tuesday, the council also modified plans to rezone the larger Vanderbilt Corridor, which would allow developers to apply for a permit to gain additional density for new projects. The changes will give the city more power to determine just how much in bonus air rights developers should receive based on a number of factors, including the scale of public infrastructure improvements developers are willing to promise, and a new building's location.

The Vanderbilt Corridor rezoning is the first step in a larger reimagining of midtown east.

[njcco]

Originally Posted by sparkling

Proposed Grand Central tower clears final major hurdle
SL Green Realty agreed to invest an additional $10 million into public transit in exchange for the right to build 1 Vanderbilt, its 64-story tower.

Joe Anuta
May 5, 2015[/QUOTE]

Sparkling,

You omitted an important part of the Crain's article:

But while the tower and rezoning have passed muster with the city, the owner of Grand Central Terminal has vowed to take the issue to the courts. Andrew Penson owns the unused development rights above the landmarked transit station, which he believes SL Green should have purchased to boost the size of its project, rather than getting them from the city by agreeing to make improvements to public infrastructure. He has argued that such an arrangement has violated his rights as a property owner, and many observers believe that with the pair of proposals nearing the finish line, the time is ripe for him to sue.

[sparkling]

^^^
Look closer, it is there

[NYguy]

http://www.cpexecutive.com/regions/n...004118949.html

“It is time to unlock the economic development potential in East Midtown,” Councilman Daniel Garodnick said in a news release. “The area has gotten stuck in outdated rules, and has lost some of its competitiveness over time. That is going to change today, starting with the Vanderbilt Corridor – where we will open the door to additional density in exchange for much needed improvements to our transit system. We have struck a much better deal for the public, and we will start seeing real benefits to Grand Central in the near term, even before a single new building is occupied.”

Garodnick, who had opposed former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal for a more widespread East Midtown rezoning in 2013 because it lacked details, lobbied for additional public improvements to the Vanderbilt Corridor plan and SL Green’s proposal. He made his comments Tuesday along with various city, state and labor leaders and Marc Holliday, CEO of SL Green. The group held a joint press conference in front of City Hall, where the City Council Zoning subcommittee voted to back the developer’s plan to build One Vanderbilt, a 1,500-foot-tall, 1.6 million-square-foot skyscraper, and the proposed Vanderbilt Corridor rezoning.

The rezoning would allow developers to seek special permits to construct bigger and taller buildings along Vanderbilt Avenue between E. 42nd and E. 47th streets if they make public improvements in the area. It will also allow for area landmarks to transfer unused development rights.

Both plans are expected to receive an OK from a Land-Use Committee this week and final approvals from the City Planning Commission and City Council later this month. SL Green expects to complete the tower in 2020.

Let's get on with it then.

[chris08876]

$220 million is very generous. Let them build now what they want in peace. Everybody benefits from it, especially commuters in Grand Central.

[NYguy]

http://jewishvoiceny.com/index.php?o...ork&Itemid=295

In the final days of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration, a more formidable plan to revamp East Midtown, by rezoning a 73-block area so to permit new office towers, had failed primarily due to the objections of Garodnick and the Council.

A revised version of the former grandiose plans are said to be coming to the table in the next few months. Politicians expressed thoughts that the Vanderbilt deal can act as a guide for the modification to this old proposal; stipulations such as developers needing to get Council approval for each building and to complete infrastructure improvements before the new towers can be occupied.

The chair of the zoning subcommittee Queens Democrat councilman Mark Weprin said that New York would fall behind without these sorts of changes.

He said, “This city is an old city when it comes to office buildings. Right now, around the world, there are new, modern office buildings with big high ceilings. And they’re not set up like they were in ‘Mad Men’ anymore, with cubicles in the middle and little offices to the side. People want new, modern office buildings with all the amenities.”

[Sun]

I'm glad that Garodnick lobbied for public improvements. Sometimes people stand in the way of change for reasons that I disagree with. Sometimes people stand in the way of change in order to ensure that the change that occurs does so in a beneficial way for the public and for the long term. This is definitely the latter.

This type of negotiation/exchange has worked fairly well for NYC before - when buildings were allowed to increase their height or density by creating 'public' space/plazas on the street level. (1961 - Privately owned public spaces). If it weren't for that, NYC would be quite a bit colder on the the ground level. Anyway, with Vanderbilt - a row of tall or supertalls with extensive public improvements might sew a vein of liveliness that pulses through that otherwise old/dead area. It's exciting.

That being said, from a strictly design standpoint I have to say that it's unfortunate that one of the tallest in the city is destined to look like this. Obviously everyone differs on this, but damn. I tried to like it, I really did.... But who knows, the PanAm err, MetLife building has become such an iconic character that I like it now... I just hope that before they build One Vanderbilt, they realize that creating set backs that look like a hand made of blocks of tofu flicking off New Jersey isn't an attractive icon.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Sun

I'm glad that Garodnick lobbied for public improvements. Sometimes people stand in the way of change for reasons that I disagree with. Sometimes people stand in the way of change in order to ensure that the change that occurs does so in a beneficial way for the public and for the long term. This is definitely the latter.

He had to put up the fight to "satisfy" the NIMBYs who have supported him. The public improvements were part of even the Bloomberg plan. But now he can stand there and say "well, see, I fought for this". The NIMBYs meanwhile just don't want the buildings. Some of them probably couldn't care less about the public improvements to the subway and railroad, if they even use it at all.

But its a win, so we can all be happy now that this tower - and others like it - can now move forward. For all of New York's office space, this is a "new" century, and a city like NY has to have the best in modern office space.

[Sun]

Originally Posted by NYguy

He had to put up the fight to "satisfy" the NIMBYs who have supported him. The public improvements were part of even the Bloomberg plan. But now he can stand there and say "well, see, I fought for this". The NIMBYs meanwhile just don't want the buildings. Some of them probably couldn't care less about the public improvements to the subway and railroad, if they even use it at all.

Excellent points.

[mrnyc]

more good news from the post:



One Vanderbilt is expected to get the green light
By Steve CuozzoMay 26, 2015 | 5:09am


Here comes One Vanderbilt!

It took 18 months of rugged negotiations, but on Wednesday the City Council is expected to overwhelmingly green-light Vanderbilt Avenue rezoning — allowing much larger new buildings to rise in the five-block corridor between East 42nd and 47th streets.


more:
http://nypost.com/2015/05/26/one-van...e-green-light/

[Submariner]

I'd hold off on the celebrations until Mr. Penson's intentions are revealed. If this case goes to litigation it could be held up for years in the court system.

[drumz0rz]

Another interesting complication is this is that the MTA has the option to buy GCT from Mr. Penson in 2017 which it is expected to do. The agreement though allows him to extend to 2032, which he may look to do if he can't sell the air rights for top dollar first. That'll make headlines, I'm sure.

I was wondering how he managed to buy GCT for only $80 Million, however given the buy-out by the MTA coming up, I see why it was so cheap.
Source: NY Times

[THE BIG APPLE]

The only line serving Midtown East is the Lexington Ave (4,5,6). The next 20 years will prove to be more crucial in building all the phases of 2nd Ave Subway. With towers like 1 Vanderbilt, and dozens of other thousand footers popping up and bring more office workers into an already congested area, there is a need now more than ever for not just a 2nd Ave Subway, but additional modes of transport to alleviate the Lexington Avenue Line, and the area in general.

Many of the workers will be coming from Brooklyn, Upper East Side, and Queens. For two of those three locales, the 4,5,6 are needed to get to Grand Central - 42nd. These developments will further push the need to attain funds to finally build phases 2, 3, and 4 of 2nd Ave Subway.

Two lines to get to 1 Vanderbilt and Grand Central currently look like this.

7 line




Lexington Line

[sparkling]

Imagining the Megatower-Filled Manhattan Skyline of 2030

Many missing but good effort nonetheless

Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Zoe Rosenberg

While it seems like news arrives every day of another supertall tower that will rise in Manhattan, the effect of the permit filings and various technical minutiae announcing developers' plans don't quite capture the full effect of how the city's skyline will actually change. Enter VisualHouse, who's created a rendering that shows what Manhattan's southern half will look like in just 15 years—that is, barring any major projects that have yet to be announced. While the rendering itself dazzles with a nighttime cityscape that almost looks real, it provides a valuable view of the various projects that will usher New York City into its next iteration as home to some of the world's tallest buildings.

[Zapatan]

That's really cool but missing quite a few buildings which is even crazier to think about

[sparkling]

^^^
Besides the missing ones, it seems they did not look at the latest Nordstrom renderings but whatever