The MTA has called a special board meeting to approve a takeover of the Hudson Yards development project in Manhattan by developer The Related Companies and investment bank Goldman Sachs. The quick switch follows an abrupt departure by real estate development firm Tishman Speyer, that won approval after a tortuously long selection process. An MTA press release quotes Mayor Bloomberg:"Today's announcement that the MTA will award Related Companies, in partnership with Goldman Sachs, the......

Sorry, Mayor Bloomberg, even your wheeling-dealing couldn't stop this: The MTA's deal with Tishman Speyer to develop the West Side rail yards is dead. Here's the statement:The MTA met today with Tishman Speyer. Despite the best efforts of both sides, a final agreement could not be reached. The MTA has now re-entered discussions with other interested developers and remains committed to timely development of these unique and valuable parcels of land on Manhattan's Far......

Photograph by streetstars on Flickr With the deal to develop the West Side rail yards on the ropes, Senator Chuck Schumer said that Mayor Bloomberg's plan for the West Side is the "goofiest thing I've ever seen." According to the Sun, Schumer was specifically referring to "the Bloomberg administration’s decision to include a mid-block boulevard," claiming that it was sapping funds from the much-needed 7 line extension. Mayor Bloomberg zinged back, "New York City......

Today, the fate of the West Side Rail Yards may be left in (near) limbo once again after the MTA meets with developer Tishman Speyer. The MTA has announced on Thursday night that the deal with Tishman had basically collapsed (Tishman was asking for things the MTA deemed unacceptable). However on Friday, Mayor Bloomberg voiced hope the two sides could work things out and a Monday meeting was arranged. MTA had selected Tishman's $1.004......

Mayor Bloomberg tried to rally hopes for a happy ending to the saga of the West Side rail yards by telling reporters, "The plan isn’t dead by any means. Hudson Yards is the most exciting opportunity New York has.” On Thursday night, the MTA issued a statement saying that negotiations wit developer Tishman Speyer had "reached an impasse" and that Tishman "no longer" had "development rights" to the 26 acres a few blocks west......

This evening, the MTA released a press release signaling that the plan to turn the West Side Rail Yards into Hudson Yards won't be happening any time soon. Apparently, developer Tishman Speyer, which won the bidding with a $1.004 billion proposal, got too grabby. At least, that's what the MTA"s statement seems to suggest:Late this afternoon, negotiations between the MTA and Tishman Speyer over the development of the Rail Yards on Manhattan's Far West......

Photo of Stuyvesant Town, by nrvlowdown at flickr Tishman Speyer, the real estate company that bought Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village for $5.4 billion in 2006, is going on a landscaping binge at the sprawling housing complex. The company plans on planting approximately 200,000 plants across the property's 80 acres, including 10,000 trees and more than 3,000 shrubs. The net effect on one resident was that it feel as if she were in......

When Tishman Speyer's bid was selected as the winner in the West Side Rail Yards development derby, politicians were relieved but the NY Times' architecture critic was upset. Nicolai Ouroussoff wrote the design "lacks even the pretense of architectural ambition" and called it a "wishful fantasy" and "a damning indictment of large-scale development in New York." In today's NY Times Arts & Leisure section, Ouroussoff takes on "big-time development" and how renderings are so......

Now that the MTA has selected Tishman Speyer to develop the West Side rail yards into Hudson Yards, a new period of public scrutiny will begin. The developer's plans will need to go through the city's public review process to rezone the western section, leaving plenty of time for potential modifications and opposition. One decided opponent of the plan is NY Times critic Nicolai Ouroussoff. After being depressed by the five proposed designs, Ouroussoff lets......

The MTA finally selected developer Tishman Speyer to transform the West Side rail yards, between 10th and 12th Avenues between 30th and 33rd Streets, into a 26-acre commercial and residential hub. MTA Chairman H. Dale Hemmerdinger said Tishman's $1.004 billion bid is "more money than anyone expected...It is an extraordinary deal." The MTA believes the deal will help with a $700 million budget deficit. The runner-up bid, from Durst-Vornado, (there were a total of......

Proposed Hudson yards renderings: Tishman Speyer's at left, Durst-Vornado's at right In spite of rumors suggesting Tishman Speyer, the real estate developer behind Rockefeller Center and Stuyvesant Town, has the upper-hand, the MTA is still seriously considering the bid from joint bid from Durst-Vornado for the 26-acre Hudson Yards. The NY Times explains that while Tishman has the higher offer, the Durst-Vornado offer is only $30 million less. And the Durst-Vornado bid still brings......

MTA officials are reportedly in negotiations with Tishman Speyer Properties this weekend in preparation to award the real estate firm the winning bid on the 26 acre Hudson Yards property. An official announcement is expected at the MTA's board meeting next Wednesday, which will initiate four months of more detailed negotiations about the sale. The winning bidder will acquire the rights to develop commercial and residential properties at the site. A platform will also need......

Pet-owning tenants of eight buildings in the Bronx are distressed over letters recently sent out by the South Bronx Management Company, who took over the buildings that were once owned by the city. The letters point out that leases prevent the keeping of pets in the building and threaten that if tenants don't get rid of their animals, they will be evicted. This sounds like a case for the pet lawyers! Indeed, many tenants have......

One month's free rent! Pets allowed! These are some of the new strategies from Tishman Speyer for its market-rate rentals at Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village complex. Which is a far cry from its past as a complex where building workers would be rewarded with $150 gift certificates if they narced on pet-owning tenants. The Post reports Tishman Speyer, which bought the development for $5.4 billion in 2006, is facing 5-10% vacancy rates, while the average......

Brookfield Properties, which had offered a plan to bring back streets - as well as 12 million square feet of development and 15 acres of public space - to the West Side Rail Yards, has declined to continue in the bidding process. The MTA had requested revised Hudson Yards proposals with more financial details by yesterday and the bids received were from Durst and Vornado, Tishman Speyer and Morgan Stanley, Extell, and Related Companies.......

The MTA has apparently narrowed down the list of contenders to develop the West Side Rail Yards - and may even ask them to team up together. According to Crain's New York, the MTA favors the developers who have already lined up tenants. Which means the front runners are The Related Companies with News Corporation and Goldman Sachs, Durst & Vornado with Conde Nast, and Tishman-Speyer with Morgan Stanley. But front runners may need......

While everyone knows that the proposals five development teams have offered up for the MTA's West Side rail yards are likely to change, the NY Times' architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff made it clear that he hopes they do, with a withering review of the five plans. Noting the great opportunity that developers have, Ouroussoff says the designs "are not just a disappointment for their lack of imagination, they are also a grim referendum on......

A storefront at the corner of Vanderbilt Avenue and 43rd Street (across from Grand Central) may be a window into the future of the West Side Rail Yards. The MTA unveiled an exhibition of the five proposals to redevelop the rail yards on the Far West Side of Manhattan, and the public will get a chance to see the models every day (except Thanksgiving) through December 3. And what's more, the MTA wants the......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a double shooting/possible homicide on Greene St. in Brooklyn, a shooting at Wyckoff Ave. and Starr St. in Brooklyn, and another shooting at East 51st St. and Church Ave. in Brooklyn. An appreciation of Jewish Delis in New York City. To avoid the widespread use of pesticides on its acres of grounds, real estate firm Tishman Speyer released 720,000 ladybugs around Stuy-Town and Peter Cooper Village. The ladybugs will......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: An armored robbery in Queens, a boat in distress east of the Steeplechase Pier in Brooklyn and a school bus accident in Staten Island. The bids are in for the West Side Yards, and the companies that submitted them are Extell Development Company, Brookfield Properties Developer LLC, The Related Companies, TS West Side Holding, LLC (A Joint Venture of Tishman Speyer and Morgan Stanley), and Hudson Center East LLC......

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. According to Crain's, there's been more interest......

The city's Far West Side dreams are at stake as the MTA will auction off the buildings rights to the West Side railyards. The NY Times takes a broad look the 26-acre swath of land where Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff says the Bloomberg administration wants to create the "21st century Rockefeller Center." Well, a Rockefeller Center with many huge buildings, as the article's lede calls the lots "where the Bloomberg administration envisions the equivalent......

It looks like some advances in technology are causing some problems at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. The $5.4 billion complex of buildings is replacing all its regular old keys with fancy electronic key-cards - in the case of Peter Cooper Village, the cards are already being used. The Post reports that Stuy Town residents could be using the new key system as early as next week. This is somewhat of an issue for......

With the record setting $5.4 billion sale of Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village to Tishman Speyer last year, many residents suspected that the new owners would shake things up. But we doubt few tenants would have anticipated the rent increases sent in lease renewal papers. The NY Times speaks with some tenants about their sticker shock. The verdict? A lot of people are moving out. Check out these rents and the increases: - Two bedroom......

Two months after Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village were sold by MetLife to Tishman Speyer for a record-breaking $5.4 billion, an epic review of the deal by Charles Bagli of the NY Times ties up loose ends and brings several underlying issues into sharper focus. Reading between the lines: The purchase is highly speculative. "Financial leaps of faith" about StuyTown's future value inflated the bidding well above a more soberly estimated price tag......

Special water theme today on the Gothamist Newsmap: DOA Floater on Staten Island, found human remains on Plumb Beach in Brooklyn, and a water rescue in the Hudson. Coliseum Books has closed for the last time-- a victim of the internet, Barnes & Noble, and rising real estate prices. Some "deranged" goths vandalized a church on East 76th Street twice in the last two days-- writing "Satan is God" and "Christ is a False......

Bwahaha! Crain's New York reports that the monster $5.4 billion deal Met Life made to sell Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village to Tishman Speyer could be derailed by a "little-known provision." Apparently the provision says MetLife cannot make more than a 6% annual profit on the complex! From Crain's: Trautman Sanders, a law firm representing the tenant group that lost its bid to purchase the complex, discovered the condition in a 1942 agreement with New......

Funny - the Daily News reports that subway conductors were told to hype the "Top of the Rock" observation deck when they pull into the 47-50 Streets Rockefeller Plaza station. While motormen and conductors think the "order is unprecedented," MTA spokesman Tom Kelly explains that it's just a free "courtesy" to let people know about attractions.A spokeswoman for Tishman Speyer, co-owners of Rockefeller Center, was tight lipped. "We are declining to comment," the spokeswoman said.......

+ Derek Jeter claims there's no air to clear with Alex Rodriguez and says reporters don't know about what's really going on + In the trial of a cop accused of killing his federal agent girlfriend, a letter she wrote suspecting he might do something to her was read in court + Jared Leto hurts Stereogum's blogging finger! + Hey, doesn't everyone need a Post-9/11 shirt? + A Guineanese immigrant and high school student......

Yesterday, it was announced that Tishman Speyer's $5.4 billion bid for Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village was successful, making it the largest real estate deal in history. But what's interesting is that the second bid from Apollo was $5.33 billion. We wonder if Apollo executives are "What if"-ing right now. The bid organized by tenants to preserve middle-class housing was $4.5-4.9 billion - well behind the other bids - and City Councilman Daniel Garodnick, Peter......