A reader who works across the street from Grand Central wrote in saying "I just went downstairs and saw cops, fire, ConEd, and people said a transformer blew up in the station." It appears Grand Central is fine, however the Met Life Building is on fire! From BNN:
FIRE ON THE 10TH FLOOR OF A METLIFE BLDG.| FIRE ON 10TH FLR TRANSORMER VOLT ROOM OF A 59 STY BRICK BLDGmore ›
Yesterday, it was announced Tishman-Speyer, the real estate firm that bought Stuyvesant Town for $5.4 billion, along with Lehman Brothers would buy real estate investment trust Archstone Smith in a $22.2 billion deal; the Observer calls it the "largest public-to-private acquisition ever among apartment REIT’s." Archstone Smith has over over 85,000 rentals nationally and almost 3,800 in NYC, which would given Tishman-Speyer over 15,000 apartments for its portfolio.
As we've mentioned before, today is World Water Day. Over 290 local restaurants are participating in the Tap Project -- just fork up $1 for the tap water that's usually gratis and UNICEF will donate that money to help provide clean drinking water to children around the world.
Gridskipper solicited picks for the city's ugliest buildings from eleven architecture-minded New Yorkers. The list includes Astor Place’s The Sculpture for Living building (which replaced a parking lot), the Queens Citicorp Building, the Pan Am Building (now the MetLife Building), the AT&T Building on Church St., the Cross Bronx Expressway and anything by Trump – but the Trump World Tower isn't really that ugly. Someone even mentioned the Hearst Tower. Wow.
Six years can bring more than a 300% return (or clear 200% of your initial investment in pure profit)! The NY Times reports that Tishman-Speyer sold 666 Fifth Avenue to the Kushner family for $1.8 billion. And reporter Charles Bagli points out Tishman-Speyer bought the property for $518 million. Many people that this will be the most expensive single building in the city, breaking Tishman-Speyer's then-record $1.72 billion purchase of the MetLife Building. Factoids: The per-square foot cost of the MetLife building is $604 while the per-square foot cost of 666 Fifth is $1,200. Hey, a Fifth Avenue address can command that.
