Results tagged “vornadorealty”

New York City's Conflict of Interest Board ruled that there was no problem in Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff continuing to work with real estate developers on multi-billion dollar real estate projects while a city employee, even though he'll be shortly negotiating with these same developers as a private citizen and President of Bloomberg LP, the Mayor's media corporation. According to the New York Post, the board cited "extraordinary circumstances" and said that Doctoroff's negotiations on behalf of the city with Vornado Realty Trust regarding the development of the Hudson Yards and Moynihan station were allowable. Doctoroff recently announced that he will be leaving his City Hall job for the position of President of Bloomberg LP. That company will be negotiating with Vornado for additional space at the building that houses Bloomberg LP's headquarters on Lexington Ave., since Vornado owns that building. The Conflicts of Interest Board gave its blessing on the condition that Doctoroff have no direct dealings with Vornado for a year after he leaves his position as Deputy Mayor.

The low-slung Port Authority bus terminal will be getting a heady addition: The Port Authority will announce a deal for a tower to be built at its north end. The NY Times reports that Lawrence Ruben Company and Vornado Realty Trust is buying air rights for $400-500 million, which the Port Authority will then be used to add 18 bus platforms, give the terminal a "major face-lift" and overall refurbishing. Well, finally - commuting to...

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...

Plans for a new Penn Station and Madison Square Garden at the historic Farley Post Office building remain as murky as ever. But a recent poll undertaken by the Municipal Art Society (MAS) suggests that Penn Station commuters overwhelmingly favor the prospect of a grand new train station--but they need more information. If and when the project proceeds, who will keep watch over the three mega-developers (the state-run ESDC, along with private companies Related Group and Vornado Realty Trust) to make sure the new-generation Station and Garden turn out better than the last one?

Hold-ups with approval for the Javits Center expansion are also complicating the plan.

Continue reading "City Wants Mega Buildings on the Far West Side"

It's difficult to know quite what to say about the huge transformations on the horizon for the Far West Side. That's partly because major negotiations and plans regarding the future of Madison Square Garden, the Farley Post Office, the Javits Center, the 7-train extension, and rezoning are taking place behind closed doors. Another reason is the uneven pace at which the planning proceeds-- years of plodding speculation followed by the sudden unveiling of a proposal, and merely a few months for public review before the deal is sealed.

Today the NY Times introduces us to the man behind some of the city’s most boring buildings.

They say that history repeats itself, but this is re-dunk-u-lous. Moynihan Station, the long-planned Penn Station expansion into the Farley Post Office that is intended to make up for the destruction of the late, great, original Penn Station (above) hasn't even been built yet but developers are already vying to build a new Madison Square Garden on top of and around it. And yes, this would be MSG number 5 for those of you keeping count at home.

Today's Times tackles the issue of how exactly one escapes from the top of a Manhattan skyscraper during an emergency. Specifically, the Times looks at an interesting new escape method developed by an Israeli company called Escape Rescue Systems.

On the heels of this past weekend's stomach turning report that, yes, bedbugs are on the rise all over the city, two Swiss businesswomen are suing the Hotel Pennsylvania and Vornado Realty Trust over the bedbug-infested stay they had in September. Their lawyer says that when the women complained to a hotel employee about being bitten by something, the employee immediately said, "Bedbugs!" showing that there was knowledge of the pest at the Penn Station-area hotel. The women were treated at a local hospital and also have "gruesome" photographs to show their wounds on their face, necks, torsos, arms and legs. Since travelers tend to carry bedbugs, this is yet another story in a long line of "the hotel's bedbugs bit me" - we remember a case at the Helmsley Hotel in 2003. Gothamist wonders if we should travel with disposable plastic sheets to sleep in the next time we stay in a hotel.

likely development contract, which, would be a good part of the $910 million plan to move NJ Transit and LIRR - and possibly Amtrak - out of the current dingy Penn Station.

Vornado says it "is committed to long-term asset enhancement" at Penn Station. And that seems logical. With the Jets stadium and associated development slated for the nearby Hudson Yards, Vornado has significant vested interests in its current holdings in western Midtown. Trying to keep competitors from gaining a foothold near Penn Station is in Vornado's best interest. And the future returns on Vornado's investment could be enormous. With enhanced transportation connections to New Jersey (through the Access to the Region's Core proposal, transit planners envision the commercial development around the future Moynihan station as a Manhattan hub for increased numbers of New Jersey-based commuters. This of course is a very expensive proposal, so the politics with this are complicated.)

Right now, Gothamist puts the chances of a new Penn Station happening ahead of the West Side Stadium or a Second Avenue subway line. What we're curious about is how the MTA will develop the A/C/E subway entrances to be access from the new location...and will the 1/2/3 get a long, 14th Street-like tunnel that will connect from the new station? At any rate, Gothamist imagines Senator Moynihan is smiling at the news.

Wal-Mart has decided not to continue plans to be in a Queens shopping mall after a lot of community and political opposition. According to the NY Times, Wal-Mart and Vornado Realty Trust, developers of the Rego Park project that would include other retail space and apartment towers, thought that Wal-Mart's continued presence would jeopardize the entire plan. What Gothamist found interesting is that apparently Vornado was hoping to keep it quiet that Wal-Mart was part of the proposal, in order to keep opposition to a minimum; it just seems so insulting and sneaky to try to hide that the country's biggest retailer might be moving into the neighborhood. Sure, Wal-Mart has low prices and people in the community could benefit from that, but Wal-Mart is a non-union shop and has treated employees badly - no matter what their ads want people to think. Now, if it were a Target, we imagine people would be close to dancing in the street. This comes after BJ's Wholesale Club decided not to build in the Bronx, though they may try again later.