Major Developments:
The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey seems to be leaning toward building a new bus terminal on the Eighth Avenue site, rather than expand to another location. The plan now is to build two new floors on top of the terminal that is already in place. Those levels would be for the buses while the three lower levels are being rebuilt.Barry Diller officially declared Pier 55 dead after years of legal disputes and around $40 million in pre-construction costs
A startup wants to pay landlords $10,000 per month or more to install intelligent, electronic window ads in retail storefronts. Digital ads are already a huge source of revenue for Times Square landlords.
Manhattan preservationists are hoping the city will make the Madison Square North Historic District three blocks bigger. Landmarks Preservation Commission wants to expand the Madison Square North Historic District in the wake of a failed attempt to landmark the neighborhood’s 116-year-old building at 316 Fifth Avenue.
TAMI tenants take up 33% of square footage at Hudson Yards, with 33%, and 44% of square footage are relocations from the Plaza District.
Amazon signed a 360,000-square-foot, 15-year lease at Brookfield Property Partners’ 5 Manhattan West. It will serve as New York’s main location for Amazon Advertising, and jobs at the site will include software engineers, data analysts and economists.
Fika can proceed with claims of fraud against their retail landlord. Fika alleged it was induced into a lease at the World Trade Center shopping complex, even though Westfield knew the space would not be ready in time for the mall’s opening. Westfield has sued at least five tenants last year for alleged breach of contract after they failed to move into their World Trade Center spaces.
Brooklyn Fare, a high-end supermarket chain is considering opening its second Midtown location at One Hudson Yards. The supermarket, which opened its high-end Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare at 431 West 37th Street last year, is looking at taking 12,000 square feet at 530 West 34th Street. The new One Hudson Yards location will combine a more affordable restaurant, grocery and outdoor space.
The Chetrit Group is $170 million closer to finishing its hotel at 255 West 34th Street. The developer closed on a construction loan for the hotel and retail project. The Chetrit Group filed plans for a 33-story hotel with 300 rooms on its West 34th Street property in 2016. The project would also include retail at the cellar level and at the first and second floors.
Foreign investors are becoming rare, and that killed the sale of One Worldwide Plaza. New York REIT put the entire office tower on the market earlier this year and hoped to sell it for $1.7 billion, but after receiving lackluster bids it changed track and sold only a 48.7% stake.
Chinese investors have retreated from the market due to regulatory pressure from Beijing.
Pearl River Mart is expanding, two years after closing its location in Soho due to rising rents. The store, which initially reopened at 395 Broadway in Tribeca, is now planning to open an additional 3,500 square-foot store in Chelsea Market at the base of 75 Ninth Avenue.
The American Museum of Natural History filed plans for its new building to house the Richard Gilder Center of Science, Education and Innovation. The building will feature a theater, green roof, aquarium and museum shop, along with labs, classrooms, offices and a three-story library. The center will span 194,000 square feet. The building address is listed as 200 Central Park West.
Kash Group and Skyway Development Groupfiles plan to convert a seven-story parking garage in the Flatiron District into offices. The makeover of the 77,035-square-foot garage at 23-25 West 20th Street will include retail on the ground floor and offices on the remaining six floors, with around 11,000-square-foot floor plates. The garage, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, is currently occupied by Icon Parking, which holds the lease through 2033.
The National Black Theatre is teaming up with L+M Development Partners to redevelop its home a block from Marcus Garvey Park into a mixed-use building with 240 residential units and space for a new, 30,000-square-foot theater. The proposed 20-story building on the site at 2031-2033 Fifth Avenue at the corner of 125th Street would span 241,677 square feet and include roughly 25,000 square feet of retail.
MKF Realty is planning to a develop an office building at 639 West 46th Street, 636 and 638 West 47th Street with around 250,000 square feet. Over the past five years, Khafif gathered three adjacent properties and their development rights, with frontage along West 46th and 47th streets and West Side Highway. He spent a combined $69 million in three separate deals.
