The Department Of Buildings

• July 2024 New York New Developments
• Major Developments: The Adams administration’s plan to rezone a 46-block area of the Bronx is moving forward, with a final City Council vote expected this summer. New York City Planning Commission signed off on the plan, which targets the areas surrounding the four new Metro-North Stations planned for Co-op City, Hunts Point, Morris Park and Parkchester/Van Nest. The stations are expected to be built by 2027. The rezoning is expected to pave the way for 7,474 apartments, and add more than 300,000 gross square feet of retail space, 1.6 million square feet of life-science space and 1.2 million square feet …
  
  
• February 2024 New York New Developments
• Major Developments: LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the parent company of Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and jewelry designer Tiffany & Co., is in negotiations to acquire 745 Fifth Avenue, a 35-story tower. LVMH is competing against other bidders for the property. SL Green acquired 2 Herald Square leasehold for next to nothing; it had completed a deal to acquire a 95% stake in the leasehold at 2 Herald Square: SL Green paid $7 million to settle the property’s $182.5 million mortgage. The City Comptroller is suing Lloyd Goldman’s development company over allegations that it failed to pay the wages required …
  
  
• November 2023 New York New Developments
• Major Developments: New York City building owners commercial janitorial workers’ union contract expires at year’s end. Wages and health benefits will play prominently into the labor fight. Hotel occupancy in Times Square and Midtown West hit 88%, a post-pandemic high. The average daily room rate is up more than 10% from last year. Almost a quarter of the $1.9 billion in closed hotel sales in Manhattan this year have come to Times Square. Industrial Space in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens had an asking rent of $26.02 per square foot in the third quarter. New York Community Bank …
  
  
• October 2023 New York New Developments
• Major Developments: The Adams administration laid out a framework to change the area’s light manufacturing zoning to allow for higher density residential and commercial use. The rezoning is expected to create between 1,150 and 1,500 below market–rate apartments, depending on the options developers select under the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing law. NY City's plan to rezone a 13-block stretch of Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn would spur the construction of 4,000 apartments, up to 38 % affordable. The projects would have to deliver affordable units and other benefits required by the new zoning. Other rezonings in the works include a 46-block area …
  
  
• April 2023 New York New Developments
• Major Developments: Gov. Kathy Hochul dismissed doubts around Penn Station’s redevelopment and expansion, as the plan appears to be in trouble. The development is expected to yield 18 million square feet of commercial space and around 1,200 apartments. Vornado controls five of the eight development sites. State authorities approved a plan to partially pay for the redevelopment of the transit station, estimating that payments in lieu of taxes from private development could generate up to $3.75 billion for the project. The donut and coffee chain last year led the city in ubiquity again with 620 storefronts, five more than the …
  
  
• January 2022 New York New Developments
• Market Overview: The Terminal 1 project at John F. Kennedy International Airport is ready to take off with a new $9.6 billion price. The terminal has been restructured, moving forward after a two-year delay. A consortium led by the Carlyle Group along with Johnson Loop Capital Infrastructure and Union Labor Life Insurance Company will finance the development, which is now expected to break ground in mid-2022. The latest cost estimate includes $7.2 billion for design and construction and $2.3 billion in “financing and other costs.” The new Terminal 1 will include 23 international gates across 2.4 million square feet, spanning …
  
  
• June 2021 New York New Developments
• New Developments The Gateway tunnel is back on track. Federal officials completed their environmental review of the $11.6 billion rail tunnel, giving the project the green light. The move comes after years of delays from the Trump administration. The plan calls for building a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River, which would connect New Jersey’s Bergen Palisades to New York’s Penn Station. The approval could potentially advance real estate acquisitions and other pre-construction activities. State lawmakers are seeking to give New York City more control over Cuomo’s Penn Station expansion and new development in the surrounding area. A recently …
  
  
• April 2020 New York New Developments
• New York New Developments Gov. Andrew Cuomo barred all employees of non-essential businesses from reporting to work, and laid out what amounts to shelter-in-place rules for New Yorkers, though he avoided the phrase. The order exempts food businesses and others deemed essential. After saying he will halt all residential and commercial evictions for 90 days, Cuomo noted that landlords would have a hard time renting out vacant apartments anyway, and real estate agents can’t show apartments under the new workforce rules. About $20 billion in retail property loans are coming due, and it’s unclear how much of that debt will …
  
  
• November 2019 New York New Developments
• Major Developments: Barneys has been sold to Authentic Brands Group and B. Riley for around $270 million. The new owners will likely shut Barneys’ locations, including its 275,000-square-foot flagship property at 660 Madison Avenue. IBM is looking for 500,000 square feet to consolidate its New York office space from multiple locations including a WeWork. IBM’s lease at WeWork’s 88 University runs through 2024. Vornado Realty Trust has encountered more retail challenges as Forever 21 filed for bankruptcy protection. However, Forever 21 may be able to keep its stores at 435 Seventh Avenue and 1540 Broadway open for a bit longer. …
  
  
• August 2019 New York New Developments
• Major Developments: Several New York landlords have resisted leasing large chunks of their buildings to co-working tenants. One prominent owner is Empire State Realty Trust who will not lease to WeWork. The Durst Organization rejected WeWork’s offer to lease 12 floors at the World Trade Center in hopes that there were better offers. Oscar Health is doubling it spaced in Hudson Square and signed a sublease for the fourth floor at One Hudson Square, bringing its total presence to 160,000 square feet. The asking rent was around $80 per square foot. Barneys luxury fashion is reportedly weighing a second bankruptcy, …
  
  
• June 2018 New York New Developments
• New York Major Developments: The top 10 office leases totaled 1.9 million square feet, much larger than the previous month’s top 10 leases, which totaled 996,000 square feet. Pfizer signed a lease for 800,000 square feet of office space at 66 Hudson Boulevard. Latham & Watkins signed a lease for the 25th through the 34th floors, totaling for 407,000 square feet at 1271 Sixth Avenue. Jet.com inked a lease for 200,000 square feet of warehouse space at 1055 Bronx River Avenue. The asking rent was $22.00 per square foot. McDermott Will & Emery signed a 20-year lease for around 106,000 …
  
  
• December 2016 New York Buildings For Sale
• Buildings For Sale: Brookfield Property Partners has put the 45-story office tower at 245 Park Avenue up for sale. Sources close with the 1.8 million-square-foot tower believe it is worth north of $2.1 billion, or more than $1,200 per square foot. Lightstone Group hopes to sell the retail space and garage at the base of the Marriott Moxy Hotel in the Garment District, which is under construction, for $64 million. The developer is looking to offload a 4,000-square-foot retail condo and 27,000-square-foot garage at the 16-story building at 485 Seventh Avenue. Buildings Sold: United American Land bought 65 Spring Street …
  
  
• August 2016 New York Buildings For Sale
• Buildings For Sale: The Blackstone Group is shopping its 665,000-square-foot office tower at 1065 Sixth Avenue and hopes to get as much as $700 million. ABC Carpet & Home is shopping around its property at 880-888 Broadway, an office-and-retail condominium that could get upwards of $200 million, or over $2,600 per square foot. ABC has owned and fully occupied the six-story, 76,400-square-foot building since 1981. The property has a 20,600-square-foot retail condo and a 55,800-square-foot condo for office and manufacturing space. It is still not clear if ABC Carpet would vacate upon selling the building or make a sale-leaseback agreement. …
  
  
• July 2016: New York Buildings For Sale
• New York Buildings sold Harry Macklowe and Qatari investment bank QInvest closed on a deal to buy 432 Park Avenue's retail space for $411.1 million. CIM Group is developing the 1,396-foot condo tower in partnership with Macklowe the seller. The cube will include 6,600 square feet of retail space and will be connected to 20,000 square feet of retail space in the tower itself through a 30,000-square-foot underground concourse. Global Holdings is in contract to buy 1250 Broadway, an office tower owned by Jamestown and Murray Hill Properties, for $565 million. 1250 Broadway is a 39-story, 721,000-square-foot tower. The contract …
  
  
• November 2015: New York Buildings For Sale
• New York Buildings sold Condo developer Six Sigma is in contract to buy a six-story self-storage facility near the northern end of the High Line in Chelsea for $54 million at 517-523 West 29th Street. The seller is self-storage Nicholas Sprayregen. The six-story, 55,000-square-foot, warehouse is one of 14 facilities in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. The site is zoned for up to 74,000 buildable square feet. Vornado Realty Trust purchased 265 West 34th Street for $28.5 million. Vornado acquired the property from a group led by Manhattan attorney William Silverman. The deal gives the company three contiguous properties …
  
  
• February 2015: NYC New Developments
• Mitsui Fudosan started construction on 55 Hudson Yards. Its $1.4 billion office tower which is part of the 28-acre megaproject on Manhattan's West Side.Property Markets Group is planning to convert a four-story commercial building at 548 West 22nd Street into a 19-story residential development.Brookfield Office Properties said the total development cost for the first of its two Manhattan West office towers is more than $2 billion.A joint venture between Madison Equities, Building and Land Technology (BLT) and Joseph's Sitt Thor Equities received a $275 million construction loan to acquire and complete the gut renovation of 212 Fifth Avenue. BRP Corp. …
  
  
• September 2014: Manhattan New Developments
• New Developments The city approved Gregg Singer's plan to convert a former Alphabet City public school into a college dormitory. The landmarked building aka P.S. 64 is locateded at 605 East 9th Street. The Department of Buildings approved Singer's plan exam for the conversion.The city's last Office Depot will shut its doors near Times Square at the end of the year. Manhattan building owners keep building even taller buildings. The trick is to bring record height skyscrapers with the minimum of big chunks of useless hidden space. The Bank of America tower at 1111 Avenue of the Americas, which is …
  
  
• May 2014 New York New Developments
• Major Developments Duane Reade recently vacated a location next to department store H&M; and is now on the market. The unofficial asking rent for the property is nearly $8 million per year. Commune Hotels & Resorts, a San Francisco-based joint partnership between Thompson Hotels and Joie De Vivre Hotels, has plans to develop two more hotels in Manhattan. One will operate under the Thompson Hotel brand, while the other will have a different hotel brand. The properties, for which Commune has already inked deals, are looking to open in 2016. The lineup for Westfield Group’s central shopping hall within the …
  
  
• August 2013: New York New Developments
• New York New Developments Brookfield Office Properties has begun construction of a bridge 120,000 square feet for its Manhattan West project. Brookfield will be the first platform on Amtrak rail yards between ninth and 12th avenues. Time Warner has agreed in principle to move in 80-story skyscraper related companies planned for yards at the 10th Avenue and West 33rd Street, capping weeks of speculation on the movement of the media company in Hudson Yards, IMG Worldwide extend its lease at 304 Park Avenue South. And will now occupy 72,080 square feet. The lease also increased its initial term of 10 …
  
  
• June 2013 New York City New Developments
• NY New Developments The Federal Department of Transportation will give New York $185 million to help build a rail tunnel under the Related Companies’ Hudson Yards project that will allow for high-speed train service between Manhattan and Newark, N.JTwo recent Plaza District office leases have broken new price records, being the most expensive office leases since 2008. Hedge fund Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb and the Brazil-based Banco Itaú will pay just under $200 per square foot for space at 9 West 57th Street and the GM Building.The Lower East Side is getting a new 12-story, 44,000-square-foot, 38-unit residential building at …
  
  
• November 2012 New York New Developments
• New Developments The Chrysler Building just got a little greener. The Owner has received a LEED gold certification for the 1.2 million-square-foot office tower. Tishman spent two years updating the building’s energy, waste, water and maintenance systems. The upgrades include new plumbing fixtures that will cut the property’s water consumption by 64 percent; a waste-management policy that will ensure 81 percent of the building’s waste is recycled; and a 21 percent reduction in energy usage. The city’s plan to sell of three historic but outdated office buildings in Lower Manhattan, all of which would likely become luxury housing or hotels, …
  
  
• October 2012 New York New Developments
• New Developments The re-zoning of Midtown is to affect the area from Lexington to Fifth avenues and East 39th to East 57th streets. Developers can buy additional air rights from the city. Within a smaller Grand Central Sub district developers can buy from owners of landmarked properties that are under built. Argent Ventures controls nearly all of those air rights through its ownership of the Grand Central terminal. The record sale price was about $6,000 a square foot in 2008 in residential, and has now reached more than $10,000 a square foot. The very-rich have finally unleashed the liquidity that …
  
  
• September 2011 New York New Developments
• Major NYC Developments The London-based Children's Investment Fund inked its first New York City real estate investment this month, providing $250 million in first mortgages for Macklowe Properties' condominium conversion of the luxury apartment building 737 Park Avenue in Lenox Hill. The fund, makes investments in a wide range of industries globally, and gives a portion of its profits to children's charities around the world. "It is the first direct real estate investment we have made in New York," New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is hindering federal efforts to negotiate a foreclosure settlement with Wall Street banks on …
  
  
• August 2011 New York Buildings For Sale
• NYC Buildings For Sale 397-401 East 8th Street a development site is on the market for $5.2 million, EV Grieve. Chang's McSam Hotel Group purchased the 4,324-square-foot vacant lot, at 397-401 East 8th Street, for $4.9 million site. Chang appears to be in the midst of a selling spree -- he recently unloaded stalled hotel project sites in the Financial District and in Union Square, as well as his new Holiday Inn Express at 126 Water Street. A month after merging with EBSCO Publishing, library reference publisher H.W. Wilson has decided to market its former headquarters and nearby land holdings …
  
  
• July 2011 New York New Developments
• New Developments Governor Andrew Cuomo, signed a statewide property tax cap legislation, caps property tax increases at 2 percent, or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. Only a 60 percent vote in local communities override Cuomo's legislation. "We are beginning a new era in which New York will no longer be the tax capital of the nation," Cuomo said Community activists opposing the Rudin family's proposed takeover of the St. Vincent's Hospital campus in Greenwich Village dropped their court appeal without ever appearing before a judge.New York led a second consecutive month of U.S. housing price gains. Nationwide home …
  
  
• June 2011 New York New Developments
• New Developments Companies such as Boston Properties and Vornado Realty Trust are in negotiations with potential tenants and may even proceed with construction without securing leases. Boston Properties may be the first to break ground by the end of 2011. The company is finalizing negotiations to anchor a 1 million-square-foot tower at Eighth Avenue and 55th StreetRelated Companies CEO Stephen Ross said he was confident about attracting tenants for the first phase of the development, which will include four million square feet of office space. "I think we're going to surprise people," he said. "We're talking to nine tenants at …
  
  
• May 2011 New York New Developments
• Major Developments Mall of America developer Triple Five has reached a deal with lenders and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's administration to reboot and expand the stalled Xanadu complex in the Meadowlands,. The checkered, 2.4 million-square-foot complex, originally envisioned as a retail and entertainment destination that would rejuvenate East Rutherford, has sat incomplete along the New Jersey Turnpike for years, sapping up $1.9 billion in the process and developing a reputation as the poster child for failed boom-time real estate projects.Real estate investment firms Savanna and Monday Properties are launching a $30 million capital improvement for a 20-story, 260,000-square-foot commercial …
  
  
• May 2011 New York Commercial Real Estate Market Report
• The Manhattan office vacancy rate increased in the first quarter of 2011 even as employment in the professional sector rose at the fastest rate since 2000. There were 11,500 new office workers in the first three months of this year. The first-quarter vacancy rate rose even as employment moved up because, large blocks of space being added to the market from tenants who signed relocation deals last year, and because many firms have excess space for their new hires.New York City office rentals got more expensive in the first quarter of 2011, even as vacancy and absorption rates remained mostly …
  
  
• April 2011 New York New Developments
• Major Trends Bruce Ratner wants to construct the world's tallest prefabricated structure at the Atlantic Yards site in Brooklyn, according to the New York Times. The 34-story proposed tower would include 400 affordable apartment units, fulfilling a promise Ratner made when he took over the site. The annual rate of building permits issued for new privately-owned U.S. housing units fell by another 8.2 percent in February to a record-low 517,000, according to the latest data from the Commerce Department, backing up analysts' predictions that a sustained recovery in the housing market is still elusive. The permitting rate, which is indicative …
  
  
• April 2011 New York Commercial Real Estate Market Report
• Manhattan's office leasing market is on pace for its best year ever after February brought some 3 million square feet worth of deals,. That's far above the nine-year monthly average of 1.9 million square feet of office leases. The banner month also comes on the heels of a busy January, when 2.6 million square feet were snapped up in Manhattan office lease transactionsManhattan townhouses see 2010 sales uptickBoth the single-family and multi-family Manhattan townhouse markets showed signs of improvement last year, according to the Corcoran Group, which released its first annual Townhouse Report today. In the single-family market, the number …
  
  
• June 2010 New York New Developments
• New Developments New York University may enter the public approval process for its new Silver Towers site, the crown jewel of its wildly controversial 2031 expansion plan. The biggest hurdle for the school will be gaining approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which will have final say on whether NYU can build on the landmark Bleecker Street site. The proposed building will be a "slender pinwheel tower," and is rumored to be planned for a 40-story structure. New York University dropped in on Community Board 3's zoning committee meeting and had little to say about how its 6 million-square-foot expansion …
  
  
• April 2010 New York New Developments
• New Developments The number of small- to mid-size medical and bio-pharmacy companies in the city has quadrupled to 120 from 2002, due to the city's recruitment and the accessibility of academic centers in the area. The Upper East Side girls' prep school has cancelled its expansion into the nearby apartment building. The Brearley School, at 610 East 83rd Street, had been angling to buy half the building at 85 East End Avenue, for use as additional teaching space but has fallen through. Extended Stay Hotels may accept a $905 million investment offer from Starwood Capital Group and associated investors in …
  
  
• September 2009 New York New Developments
• New Developments New building permits issued in the first five months of 2009 showed a year-over-year drop in all five boroughs for the second year in a row. Citywide, permits were down 48.5 percent from the same period last year to 720, and were down 69 percent from the first half of 2007, when the building boom was still in full force. Of the five boroughs, Manhattan saw the biggest drop from last year, with 18 building permits filed between January and May, or 72.3 percent fewer than in the same period of 2008. This number was off 71.9 percent …
  
  
• June 2009 New York New Developments
• New Developments Developers of a Jean Nouvel-designed skyscraper adjacent to the Museum of Modern Art have applied to build a tower seven stories taller than the original proposal unveiled two years ago was 75 stories tall. The building has been controversial, with Community Board 5 criticizing its height and bulk in a resolution in March 2008. The mixed-use project from Houston-based international developer Hines Interests will have 100 hotel rooms and 120 condominium units on the upper floors, and also include a 60,000-square-foot expansion of MoMa's galleries on the second to the fifth floors. The amount of space for the …
  
  
• April 2008 New York New Developments
• New DevelopmentsThe City Council approved the rezoning for Sheldon Solow's $4 billion development on the East River, making the way for seven towers to rise on nine acres of First Avenue from East 35th Street to East 41st Street. The project will create about 3,000 apartments, 1 million square feet of commercial and 69,000 square feet of retail. The development will include affordable housing, a public school and five acres of public space. Gov. David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have hailed Tishman Speyer's plan for developing the MTA's 26-acre Hudson Yards. Tishman Speyer owns Rockefeller Center, a fact that …