New York Major Developments
Amazon has decided against coming to New York City. The company won’t build a new campus in Queens. Amazon was reconsidering its selection of New York, amid fierce political opposition. Much of the blowback sprung from the $3 billion state and city incentive offered to the company to come to the city. The company also indicated that it isn’t planning to reboot a search for another location, instead will focus on its new headquarters.The gallery space at Sotheby’s auction house is being upgraded and expanded at their headquarters on 1334 York Avenue for $55 million. They will increase their gallery and commercial space to 90,000 square feet from 67,000, with a total of 40 separate exhibition spaces.
Jay Suites is venturing into the conference-room leasing business has opened a 20,000 square foot space at 515 Madison Avenue and a 22,000 square foot space at 15 West 38th Street. The spaces, named Jay Conferences, will be filled with conference rooms and equipment for hire, starting at $99 a day per person.
Payless ShoeSource has filed for bankruptcy and plans close all of its remaining 2,500 stores.
Lyft has signed a 100,000 square foot lease at 441 Ninth Avenue.
Nusr-Et Burger,has signed a lease at 220 Park Avenue South and will rent 2,800 square feet on the ground floor and 3,200 square feet below in the basement. The retail space, which has frontage on East 18th Street, had an asking rent of $220 a square foot.
LCRE Group refinanced the construction loan on its new Marriott-branded hotel in the Financial District, nearly a year after the firm reportedly was on the hunt for new debt. The lender, Shanghai Commercial Bank, provided $85 million to refinance the 33-story AC Hotel New York Downtown at 151 Maiden Lane.
The Trump Organization is abandoning plans to build two nationwide hotel chains amid growing scrutiny over the company, and as a Democrat-led House of Representatives looks to position itself against President Trump.
JPMorgan Chase is going to increase the 7,000 square-feet of external enclosed public space to 10,000 square feet of open-air public space at the base of the tower at 270 Park Avenue
Luxury retailer Hermès of Paris is planning a new flagship location at 706 Madison Avenue and signed a lease and will open the new location in 2022. The five-story space spans 40,000 square feet and includes two outdoor terraces.
Google plans to invest $1 billion in a new 1.7 million-square-foot in New York City’s Hudson Square. They plan to double the size of its more than 7,000-employee workforce.
Sears has emerged from bankruptcy with a new plan: smaller stores, fewer clothes and aisles full of tools and appliances. ESL Investments bid $5.2 billion for the retailer’s assets, and the new company will sell or sublease some of the 425 stores.
Golden Touch Imports signed a 60,000-square-foot lease at 500 Seventh Avenue. will take the sixth and seventh floors..
The makeover of 550 Madison is cleaned up and back on track. The Landmarks Preservation Commission has approved the latest design proposal for renovating the 37-story office tower. This is the second time the development team have tried to transform the 1984 Postmodern office building.
Lululemon’s departure from 597 Fifth Avenue could put landlord Thor Equities in danger of having to hand over the property to lender SL Green Realty. The retailer plans to move into a 20,000-square-foot space at nearby 592 Fifth Avenue.
A new 20-story mixed-use building is headed to East Harlem, which already has a handful of major projects underway following the neighborhood’s rezoning. The project, at 2252 Third Avenue, between 122nd and 123rd Streets, will span 53,900 square feet and hold 61 residential units and retail space.
Qatar is rethinking how it invests its money abroad following the deal Brookfield struck last year to bail the Kushner Companies out of 666 Fifth Avenue. The country’s Qatar Investment Authority will now try to avoid putting money in funds or other investment vehicles it does not completely control.
Vornado Realty Trust is undertaking a $200 million renovation of One Penn Plaza, and wants the city’s help in fixing what’s become known as “crack alley.”
McNally Jackson’s flagship bookstore in Soho is no longer moving, and the store is planning to open two more branches. One of the new locations will be in Downtown Brooklyn, and the other will be at the South Street Seaport. The store almost moved after the landlord at 52 Prince Street jacked up the annual rent from $350,000 to $850,000. However, ultimately a deal closed for $650,000 per year with gradual increases over the next five years. The landlords for the two new locations are both charging affordable rates and giving money to help build the stores.
Silverstein Properties may now go ahead and build the 2 World Trade Center skyscraper on spec. Given the strong economy and leasing momentum at nearby towers, it might be a good time to move ahead with construction on the 80-story, 2.8 million-square-foot tower for occupancy 2022 or 2023. So far only, work has started on the building’s foundation.
A potential rezoning of Soho and Noho by a group of major Soho landlords and developers have formed an advocacy organization to push rezoning in Soho and Noho. The process of public input is expected to last until June, after which the mayor’s office will draw up a formal rezoning plan. That plan will then undergo formal review process.
TF Cornerstone and MSD Partners plan to demolish the Grand Hyatt New York to make way for a new 2 million square foot office tower.
Innovo Property Group and Square Mile Capital Management are planning to build a roughly 740,000-square-foot warehouse at the former site of Whitestone Multiplex Cinemas in the Bronx. The two firms bought the site from Extell Development for about $75 million and plan to lease the warehouse to e-commerce companies for deliveries. The project’s total cost should range from $300 million to $500 million.
L&M Development Partners filed plans for a new 15-story building at 60 East 112th Street that would span about 404,000 square feet. The mixed-use project would include 315 residential units, along with commercial and community space.
As it enters the final stage of its $400 million expansion, New York’s Museum of Modern Art will be closing its doors for fours months this summer and fall, from June 15 to Oct. 21, for a full reconfiguration of its galleries.
