“We continue to evaluate our needs and at this time have nothing to share,” is all the spokesperson said in an email statement.

We here at The Commercial Observer will continue to evaluate this story as it develops and will share everything we hear.

Microsofties.

Steven J. Pozycki has reeled in his white whale as one of the most sought after tenants in the entire city has landed at one of its most troubled office towers. According to numerous sources, Microsoft is poised to sign a long-term lease for 400,000 square feet at 11 Times Square, the office tower Mr. Pozycki's New Jersey-based SJP Properties built just as the real estate bubble was bursting.

For months, the Seattle-based software company has been looking at new offices in New York as it mulled whether or not to leave its current home at 1290 Avenue of the Americas. Microsoft had been looking at space across Manhattan, but it seemed to have a special affinity for the West Side, having strongly considered Mort Zuckerman's swiftly rising 250 West 55th Street. For a time, Microsoft appeared interested in 11 Times Square but its focus faded in favor of other opportunities, until a last minute pitch by SJP brought the building back into the running and helped seal the deal.

"They could have gotten a better deal elsewhere in the city, but they had just fallen in love with that space," according to one industry source. Microsoft was said to be looking at 51 Astor Place among other early stage options. The move represents a considerable upgrade from Microsoft's current lease at 1290 A of A, where it had roughly 100,000 square feet of space according to Co-Star.

A team from Jones Lang LaSalle led by executive Mitch Konsker was behind the push to bring the company into SJP's property.

SJP declined to comment and Microsoft did not immediately return requests for comment.

The lease at 11 Times Square, supposedly for 15 years, is a coup for SJP, which has been struggling to fill its shiny geometric tower across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal ever since it built the 40-story skyscraper on spec at the height of the last real estate boom. The tower was just coming online as Lehman Brothers collapsed, and it took two years for a major tenant to move in, when Law firm Proskaur Rose took 400,000 square feet in the middle of the building. It was not immediately clear whether Microsoft would be moving in above or below the lawyers.

Now, more than 80 percent of the 1 million-square-foot building is spoken for, the latest good news in a project that had been a perennial underdog. The project was largely taken over by its senior lender, Prudential Real Estate Investors, as SJP struggled to make payments on its largely empty edifice. Earlier this year, the retail, which had also sat vacant for years, landed a 25,000-square-foot lease from Global Food International, a Russian restaurant outfit. At one point, an aquarium had considered taking the space—perfect for a white whale.

“The deal with Two Trees is currently in its preliminary stages,” Raphael Cestero said in a statement released this afternoon by CPC. “Our goal is to find a partner who will develop Domino into the mixed-income, mixed-use community it was intended to be and to find a deal that works for CPC and all our various stakeholders."

The deal would also allow CPC to unburden itself from a $2 billion mixed use development project that only weeks ago had appeared to have become a disastrous undertaking for the company, which has been criticized in recent months for stepping beyond its original mission of financing affordable housing.

“With this sale, CPC will be able to return to its core mission as a lender providing badly needed capital to support affordable housing development and strengthen neighborhoods throughout the City and State,” Mr. Cestero’s statement read.

Isaac Katan, a developer who owns the site in a fifty-fifty joint venture with CPC and who has opposed the non-profit group’s attempts to recapitalize and sell the project, criticized the sale, which he put at $165 million, on the basis that it would only allow his company Katan Group and CPC to break even on their investment in the project.

“We wouldn’t make any money on this deal,” Mr. Katan said, pointing out the fact that the partnership has worked for years on the development and that it paid about $55 million to acquire the site.

Mr. Katan has accused CPC of cutting him out of decision making at the property, mismanagement and profligate spending that he said piled on tremendous and unnecessary debts.

Mr. Katan’s lawyer, Y. David Scharff said in an emailed statement to The Commercial Observer that “CPC is undervaluing the asset yet again” in the deal with Two Trees by as much as $35 million.

"We cannot fathom why CPC refuses to extract value from this project,” Mr. Scharff’s statement said.

CPC has denied Mr. Katan's accusations, citing that the costs it incurred were typical for such a large scale project and that the deals it has been able to structure are the most lucrative options for the partnership.

CPC drew up plans for at least four large residential towers and significant affordable housing at the site in pushing the project through a tricky review process with the city that was necessary to alter its zoning. The project stalled however during the economic downturn, which brought Williamsburg's condo market crashing down. The area has begun to dramatically recover in recent years however.

Earlier this year, CPC appeared to be preparing to recapitalize the project after it fell into default with its senior lender Pacific Coast Capital Partners. Mr. Katan launched an unsuccessful lawsuit to block that deal.

In recent weeks however, sources familiar with CPC said the company began to receive unsolicited offers from private developers to buy the factory outright. Among those interested in acquiring the site were Larry Silverstein and Stephen Ross.

CPC currently is only negotiating with Two Trees, a developer that won success and attention for buying up former manufacturing and warehouse buildings in DUMBO and redeveloping them into high end residential space, turning the neighborhood into an exclusive high end enclave.

"Two Trees understands waterfront development, is well-capitalized and is the best chance for meeting our vision for Domino,” Mr. Cestero said in his statement.

“It’s just a good fit for us,” Jed Walentas, a principal of Two Trees told The Commercial Observer, adding that “the news is premature” his firm was buying the complex. Both Mr. Walentas and CPC said that they had agreed on a preliminary term sheet for the sale, a non binding agreement.

Given its track record in DUMBO, Two Trees would appear well qualified to build on the Domino site and realize its vast potential as a housing complex with stunning views of Manhattan. Williamsburg is an area that has caught on as a popular residential neighborhood and destination for arts and nightlife. But the site also comes with hurdles. Landmark protections at the sugar factory require that its main buildings, a square structure with the Domino logo on its facade and a behemoth brick property with a towering smokestack, be preserved. Those familiar with the site say that it would likely cost many millions of dollars to renovate and make them habitable. CPC also struck a deal with the city to build 30 percent of the project as affordable housing, a larger than normal percentage that people familiar with the development said cuts into the project’s profitability.

The Domino site wouldn't be Two Trees' first foray into Williamsburg. The firm just finished building the new Wythe Hotel.

While Walmart refuses to say if, when or where it might finally open a store within the five boroughs, one of its favored sites is the Related Company's Gateway Center Mall in the far reaches of Brooklyn. The area is economically depressed, meaning the cheap jobs and cheap merchandise are (theoretically) desirable. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union sees Walmart jobs as junk, and they have been campaigning against the store since it resurfaced a two years ago.

Today, they made things personal, not just with Steve Ross, Related's founder and CEO, but also his more than 7,200 tenants in the New York area.

The union and its Walmart Free New York campaign put together a postcard urging residents in Relatated's 26 developments across the city to contact the company and say they do not support a Walmart in the city. The front side of the postcard shows a Walmart sign looming over a terrace (above) while the back (below) directs tenants to a special website where they can send in an electronic complaint. Related representatives were not immediately available for comment.

Even in liberal Manhattan, it seems hard to believe anyone would move because a big box store might open up on the opposite side of the city.

Update: To clarify, the junk jobs referred to above were those of Walmart, not the entire Gateway Center complex, which the RWDSU does support, as made clear in this statement from a union spokesman:

Appreciate the coverage but the RWDSU does not view the jobs at Gateway II as "junk." We support the effort to bring in high-road retailers and businesses that will create the best jobs for local residents. Walmart is a low-road retailer that harms workers, small businesses, and communities. New Yorkers stand to lose far more than they would ever gain from Walmart, and that's why we're opposed to Walmart.

Also, this post initially misstated the number of tenants receiving postcards as 2,600. The number is in fact 7,200 or more in 26 different developments in New York City. The Observer regrets the error.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Now, it has finally launched its website with updated renderings and floorplans (spotted by Curbed) which finally helps us get what the building is all about.

The strange angles of previous renders made the building almost incomprehensible, but now we think we get it. It's a rectangle sitting on top of a rhombus on top of an irregular pentagon—if you're still confused, hopefully this slideshow helps clarify things a little bit.

Especially interesting is the absolutely outraged comments on Curbed, where people complain about another glass building coming to the Village. While it is true that brick and cast iron may have more character, this appears to be one of the more interesting buildings built in the neighborhood since, well, 41 Cooper Square, the new Cooper Union building finished a few years ago—which proves it is possible to do quite a bit more than just build a boring glass building, even if it winds up bankrupting the institution behind it in the process.

Just so long as this thing does not wind up looking like the atrocious "Sculpture for Living." When you think back to that—funky forms, famous architect—51 Astor can start to give one pause.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Going up, regardless. (Getty)

The latest bad news at ground zero is that costs continue to mount for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center. A report that found costs rose 85 percent since the project began in 2006, to $14.8 billion, placed a great deal of responsibility for these cost overruns on prior leadership at the Port.

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg defended the Port's leadership and the importance of rebuilding, according to DNAinfo.

"I don’t know where those numbers come from," Bloomberg said, adding that the costs were not significantly higher than what had originally been envisioned.

"I'm sure there are some things that they could have done differently, in retrospect. [It's] easy to play Monday morning quarterback."

Regardless of the cost, the mayor insisted that finishing the memorial in time for the anniversary was critical.

"Can you imagine? If America couldn’t have come up with a memorial by the 10th anniversary, I would suggest that the press would have had a field day," he said. "It would have been an embarrassment around the world.

"New York had to deliver. The Port Authority had to deliver. The donors had to deliver."

The mayor also reminded reporters of the complexity that helped create these costs in the first place.

"The bottom line is the whole site is perhaps the most complex construction project in the history of the world — legally, politically, engineering-wise," he said. "Keep in mind there's a railroad that runs through it. Two railroads. And they never stopped. Nobody else could do that. Every building is dependent on every other one. Who could build all these things at the same time? Only the people we had."

Meanwhile, Capital New York's Dana Rubinstein (our former colleague) has the best analysis of all the audit coverage. She points out that Governor Chris Christie, who has been slamming the Port, and particularly its old maestro Chris Ward, was nowhere when the report was announced, and she has a theory why:

With New Jersey governor Chris Christie under scrutiny for what appear to be dozens of patronage appointments to the Port Authority, his and Governor Cuomo's long-anticipated audit of the agency was released quietly on Tuesday at 4:30 pm, following a briefing with reporters a half hour earlier.

At 5:34 p.m., the governors released a joint statement saying, "This record of historic failure must be reversed."

(“I think this patronage thing hamstrung them,” said one lobbyist who was involved with the World Trade Center redevelopment, referring to the muted announcement.)

While the politicians squabble, the towers keep rising, as The Journal goes inside Tower 4. The overruns are unfortunate, surely, but also to be expected. Anyone who pretends otherwise is fooling themselves. Someday, someday soon, even, New Yorkers will look up at their new downtown skyline and they will have forgotten all this.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Rising towers, rising costs. (Getty)

The Port Authority has just released  the preliminary findings of its agency-wide review, the biggest, if least surprising, news of which is that the cost of redeveloping the World Trade Center continues to sky rocket. The price has risen from the $11 billion estimated in 2008 to a current estimate of $14.8 billion. That is almost twice as expensive as the project was initially expected to cost when first announced in 2006, with a price tag of $8 billion.

The Port is now dead set on containing costs to ensure no further increases. "Given that enormous burden, we are committed to taking the steps necessary to mitigate the Port Authority's exposure at the World Trade Center site," the special committee preparing the report write to governors Christie and Cuomo in  January 31 letter.

The Port is currently holding a conference call to discuss the findings, so check back for further details.

Update: The Port Authority is now on the hook for $7.7 billion, up from $6 billion three years ago. The report blames prior leadership for much of these gains.

Meanwhile, Port officials insist it was worth rebuilding, even as they criticize the cost of doing so.

“These costs were inevitable once the decision was made in 2008 that we were going to be open for the 10th anniversary,” board vice-chair Scott Rechler told reporters. “A lot of those costs were recognized in 2008; some of those costs were not recognized until later. Some incurred for work to third parties.” Mr. Rechler, principal at RXR Realty, was one of four members on the special committee responsible for the report.

Pat Foye, the Port Authority's executive director, reiterated the importance of building. "Opening the memorial on the 10th anniversary was an important national objective,” he said.

The committee is now undertaking a second phase review to look for ways to break down silos and reorganize the agency to save money and increase efficiency. Current estimates include a possible $1 billion more in liabilities to the Port if costs cannot be controlled on the site.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the original price of the project as $10 billion, not $8 billion.

mchaban@observer.com

Not giving up, going up. (Getty Images)

So maybe it wasn't a bombshell after all, the "news" yesterday that Larry Silverstein might not be able to finish 3 World Trade Center all the way, leaving it instead as a seven-story retail and mechanical stump for the time being. In a statement, the downtown don insists he will find a tenant, and he has about two years to do it before he must truly pull the trigger and decide to cap the tower or to keep building.

We are 100 percent committed and determined to build 3 World Trade Center to the top as quickly as possible.  We agreed to a plan in 2010 that requires us to pre-lease 10 floors of office space before moving forward with the full tower.  We are currently speaking with a number of potential tenants and remain fully optimistic that we will sign a lease in time to complete the tower as scheduled in 2015.  That agreement, which anticipated the completion of the podium in 2013, in no way prevents us from moving full steam ahead as soon as we secure a tenant.

As The Observer reported yesterday, Port Authority executive director Pat Foye expects the same outcome. "He needs a 400,000-square-foot tenant, or tenants, and my money’s on that he’ll get it and that tower will go forward," he told reporters at an industry luncheon yesterday.

And yet the Post's Steve Cuozzo says the leasing and development scene is the quietest he's seen it in too long. Not exactly a promising sign, but also not a death sentence given how much time there is to work this deal out. "We tried to coax developers and/or reps to put their sunniest spin on things, but — maybe because they’re being more honest these days — they wouldn’t bite," Mr. Cuozzo wrote in his Realty Check column today. Perhaps everyone is just holding their breath until Europe sorts itself out. Not to mention the rumors about China and everywhere else.

One place Silverstein will not be looking for help? City Hall. Mayor Bloomberg told reporters yesterday that there would be no extra help for 3 World Trade Center.“We’re not in the business of supporting commercial real estate,” the mayor said, according to the Post.

Just another day at Ground Zero.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Shiny new sales. (Brownstoner)

If the Fulton Mall is being transformed, it is only so much. The strip is being glammed up, stocked with major national retailers, at the cost of the mom and pops who have called the mall home for decades.

Still, things are not changing so much. As previously, pretentiously noted, Smith Street it ain't, nor is it going to be. This is still a discount strip. From H&M to Target, the Gap to the almost-Filene's, the newcomers have been far from high end—not counting the hamburgers. For further proof of the trend toward the same, welcome Century 21 to the neighborhood.

According to the Post, the discount dandies are poised to sign a 100,000-square-foot lease for the upper floors of the soon-to-open City Point mall under construction on the old Albee Square Mall site. That's twice the size of the on-target Target, which is technically not official but that everyone has been talking about for years.

The move makes sense, this being the third busiest retail strip in the city, better than Madison Avenue or the company's downtown location. The company has been expanding at a healthy clip, almost doubling its downtown store and opening another near Lincoln Center last year. There is one in Brooklyn already, out in Bay Ridge.

Now all the mall needs is an Apple Store.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Twin peaks. (Jason Barr)

Among the reasons New York has the finest skyline in the world—consider that a statement of fact, not opinion—is not simply the skyscrapers bounding up the island of Manhattan but also their unusual arrangement. Like a great mountain range, the city is arrayed around the twin peaks of Downtown and Midtown.

Perhaps the appeal is Freudian.

It has long been believed that New Yorkers could thank God for their unusual agglomeration of buildings (or, for those on the Upper West Side not believing in His good work, eons of geological development). It turns out that Manhattan has a bedrock unusually suited to the construction of very tall buildings, in many cases just a few meters below the surface. But that solid land drops away in the gooey middle of the island, long limiting the heights of buildings in the city.

Or so the aphocraphists have been passing down for decades, at least since noted geologist Christopher J. Schuberth released his seminal The Geology of New York City and Environs in 1968. Therein, he posited his belief in a correlation between bedrock and big buildings, and like the Empire State Building, it has stood the test of time. But like a bad retaining wall, it all came tumbling down last month.

“Everybody is looking at this backwards,” Jason Barr, an economics professor at Rutgers, told The Observer in a phone interview. “It’s not an issue of supply, of where you can build. It’s an issue of demand, or where you want to build.”

Location of Manhattan skyscraper, 1890-1915.

Mr. Barr, along with two colleagues from Fordham, published a study in December issue of The Journal of Economic History debunking what he calls the Manhattan bedrock myth. Using 173 random core samples from the Battery to Central Park South, Mr. Barr, Troy Tassier and Rossen Trendafilov were able to show that there was no correlation between the depth of bedrock and the likelihood of a skyscrapers construction—in the case of their study, a building at or above 18 stories, which was tall for the time when the city’s two business districts developed between 1890 and 1915.

What the economists found was that some of the tallest buildings of their day were built around City Hall, where the bedrock reaches its deepest point in the city, about 45 meters down, between there and Canal Street, at which point the bedrock begins to rise again toward the middle of the island. Indeed, Joseph Pullitzer built his record-setting New York World Building, a 349-foot colossus, at 99 Park Row, near the nadir, as did Frank Woolworth a decade later.

By studying historical construction data, the researchers were also able to determine that at the extreme, the most a deep bedrock could add to the costs of a building is about 7 percent, and therefore negligible when it comes to the economics of construction. “Compared to the cost of land in Manhattan, that amount is miniscule,” Mr. Barr said.

Probability of skyscraper locations.

Mr. Barr has carved out a niche as a skyscraper economist, studying issues such as the economic determinants of a skyscraper’s height in Manhattan—often bigger than they should be—and whether the world’s tallest buildings can be used to predict a coming economic calamity. “These things tend to get built, and then people go looking for the crisis,” Mr. Barr.

Growing up on Long Island in the 1970s, Mr. Barr said he used to be scared of the big city, but after he started hanging out here on weekends, coming down from Cornell to visit a friend at Columbia, he fell in love. Still, he stumbled onto his specialty the way most of his colleagues do. “As an economist, you’re trained to seek out unusual data sets," Mr. Barr said. "No one else was really doing this, so I decided to.”

So why the Midtown migration? Like cavemen following mammoth across the Bering Strait, early developers were following their prey. “Who’s moving north?” Mr. Barr said. “It’s the wealthy and the middle class. If you’re an insurance salesman, do you really want to be traipsing through the slums of Five Points or the factories of Soho to get to work? That land was cheap, but the location was worthless.”

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

One of the lesser works of the monolithic Emery Roth & Sons—they of GM and Look and Pan Am buildings fame—757 Third is the typical wedding-cake office building. A banded obsidian glass curtain wall with those I-beam mullions, it is the sentinel we’ve seen before, cast ever so slightly anew in a thousand business districts the world over. Seagrams lite with a splash of Chase Manhattan.

That is why walking into, or really out of, 757 Third is such a dramatic experience. The 28-story building may have the nicest revolving doors in the entire city. Set into two curving, scythelike glass panels, the building’s egress does not really have an edge, and so when stepping out onto the street through those spinning doors, it is as though the building suddenly disappears. You have left the warm confines of this sleek building and are back on the cold New York City street. You might even stop to gasp at the trick if the door were not coming up behind you, about to deliver a smack in the toosh.

It should come as no surprise that the man responsible for the transformation of one of Midtown’s many dowagers is that slick rick of midcentury Manhattan, Aby Rosen. Having worked his magic on Andy Warhol and Lever House, he is using the same touch on his lesser projects, as well, as his firm, RFR Realty, sets about retrofitting and retenanting 757 Third.

“It’s an RFR building, and this is what we do,” Sheldon Werdiger, director of marketing and design at the firm, said during a recent tour of the building. He was standing on the sidewalk, just come out from those revolving doors, and was gesturing at the facade, which had recently been cleaned. Instead of peeling back the skin of the building, as has been done on so many other aging Midtown towers, RFR decided its was in good enough shape to keep intact. “It has the right look and the right feel, and we didn’t want to diminish any of the work that Emery Roth had done,” Mr. Werdiger said.

The storefronts have been refaced to create a fresher appearance at the sidewalk and greater curb appeal for retail tenants. Wells Fargo has already taken the corner. Over the magical revolving door hangs a new canopy, where Steve Morrows, RFR’s co-director of leasing, said a major tenant’s name could go, one of many name-branding opportunities offered by the developer. (The building is also being represented by Jones Lang LaSalle.)

The inside is pure RFR, as well. “We have a very clean, I don’t want to say minimal, but our aesthetic is very sleek,” Mr. Werdiger said. The lobby floors are black granite, the walls white marble. A signature artwork—rotating through Mr. Rosen’s collection—hangs behind the welcome desk. Warm tropical woods encase the elevator core.

Upstairs, nearly half the 500,000-square-foot building is available, including a 193,000-square-foot block spread between lower and upper floors catering to a marquee tenant. The building stretches along 47th Street, with numerous setbacks alongside shorter buildings providing light on almost all four sides, and a narrower floorplate offering a brighter workspace than some deeper buildings. The space has been configured for financial, legal or media tenants. Other corners of smaller space have been broken down into prebuilts, which RFR has designed in-house, doubling as a showcase for its own designers, who will help clients fit out the space, always in the RFR style. “You won’t find anyone else doing it this nice,” Mr. Werdiger said.

The buildings unusual stepped backs and cutout create a number of unique opportunities, allowing for six different corner offices and terraces on five different floors, all clever uses of space that had once been ignored as ancillary.

Mr. Morrows points to this as the last great opportunity on Third Avenue, as 777, 807 and 600 have all filled up. “In the balance of the recession, a substantial amount of space on Third Avenue has turned over,” Mr. Morrows said. “If you want to be here, in a quality building at a good price, this is it.”

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Stumping at the Ace Hotel. (Stumptown)

It's a good week for Oregon. Last night, the Ducks won their first Rose Bowl since 1917, Portlandia has its season premier on Friday and The Observer has learned that the Rose City's favorite coffee roaster is about to open its second New York store, a flagship planned for 30 West 8th Street in the Village.

Stumptown is one the Beaver State's top exports, behind grass (sod, not pot), hazelnuts, Nike duds and indie rock. One of the first bean-obsessed micro-roasters in the country, Stumptown achieved a cult following in Portland, with its coveted coffee eventually showing up in cafes across the country, including those in Brooklyn and Manhattan. A few years ago, the company opened a roaster in Red Hook to ensure freshness, and when the Portland-born Ace Hotel opened in NoMad two years ago, among its trendy boutiques was a small Stumptown—all four Aces carry the coffee, in fact.

This will be the first standalone store in New York; the 10th between here, Portland and Seattle; and, if memory serves this former Oregonian, the largest of all outlets at 1,700 square feet. "This is going to be their big Manhattan roll out," said Bill Abramson, director of sales and leasing at Buchbinder & Warren Realty Group, which represented the landlord of 30 West 8th Street.

30 West 8th Street getting its caffeine fix. (Property Shark)

The move is possible thanks to a sizable private equity investment made last year by TSG Consumer Partners, which counts Vitaminwater among its successful investments. Duane Sorenson, Stumptown's founder, told The Times last June it would open two stores in Brooklyn by the fall, but so far this is the first concrete news of a new cafe. The current plans call for the Village spot to open in five months.

"They loved the space," Mr. Abramson said. "It's got 17-foot ceilings, it's on the corner, they loved the brick interior of it. They just fell in love with the space." The high population of college students, between N.Y.U., the New School and Cooper Union, was also a draw.

A Stumptown representative based in New York who declined to give his name would not confirm the particulars of the location, though he did acknowledge that the coffee company is looking at a number of locations in the city. "We're really excited about what's happening and the direction Stumptown is going," the Stumper said.

The space is currently subdivided into three storefronts: Gus' Deli and Cartridge World, both of which have termination clauses in their leases, and a vacancy where a boutique named Versailles long held court.

Mr. Abramson said the landlord had been holding out for a marquee tenant, with hopes to revive a street that was once a major commercial strip when the monied classes (first) called the Village home a century ago—the block has fallen on bargain-basement times in the past few decades. With plans for the resurrection of the Marlton House hotel at 3 West 8th Street, and now Stumptown, the area may have gotten the jolt it needs.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Should we tear down 285 Madison? (Property Shark)

The cause of the elevator accident at 285 Madison is still being investigated, and it looks like faulty maintenance may have been the cause. Not so for Post real estate sage Steve Cuozzo. He blames the city's bureaucracy for saddling us with outdated building stock.

If ever there was an argument for new commercial construction — despite whiners who venerate pre-World War II Manhattan — it’s the prevalence of lousy buildings like 285 Madison.

Office workers there told The Post they found its violations-prone elevators “creaky and scary.” No one yet knows whether the challenge of maintaining an 86-year-old building contributed to this week’s nightmare. But it’s a scary reminder that Manhattan’s office stock, engine of the state’s economy, is woefully dated compared with other world capitals.

Despite a handful of glamorous projects like One Bryant Park and One World Trade Center, very few new towers have been built here in recent decades — thanks to political and economic challenges that stunt development.

Old brick towers look romantic in Berenice Abbott’s 1930s nighttime photos, but they’re near-useless for today’s financial firms and “creative” enterprises.

It's an intriguing argument, one the Cuozz drives home by pointing out that New York has only built 10 million square feet of office space in the past decade, compared to 57 million square feet in the equally august London.

Could 3 Columbus be the answer? (NYC Architecture)

A lot of that has been built in formerly industrial areas like Canary Wharf, not in the heart of old commercial districts, like Madison Avenue. That is why Hudson Yards is getting off the ground, along with the rest of the West Side. That is why there is so much interest in the World Trade Center. That is why Downtown Brooklyn is even picking up some momentum.

Bringing down construction costs and finding new places to build—perhaps Long Island City deserves another look, or LoLo should become a reality—is the key, not destroying the historic fabric of the city. The cost of assembling such sites and clearing them is often prohibitive, and building new office space elsewhere could indeed open these older buildings to renovation (see: The Empire State Building) or residential conversion, which is very much in-demand in the city, as well.

After all, where is Y&R moving? Into a building originally built in 1928. It might not look it anymore, but it only took a little bit of work to make it work. With Y&R moving out, why not do the same at 285 Madison?

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Ruby's - will she ever be the same? (NYMag)

You can take the freaks out of Coney Island… actually, you can’t.

After two years of trying to Disneyfy the boardwalk, city-sanctioned Coney Island operators Central Amusements International has asked a handful of Coney Island lifers to keep their coveted clapboard spots. Ruby’s Bar, Paul & Daughters, Nathan’s, the Orignal Coney Island Beach Shop and relative newcomers Lola Staar have all been given new eight-year leases along the beach, according to the Post.

Since it took over the city’s license for the boardwalk, which runs for a decade, until the summer of 2019, Central Amusements has been looking to sex up the boardwalk. After it failed to bring in a high-flying Miami operator, CAI has turned back to the businesses it tried to shun, the Post reports:

Critics had worried that an influx of chain eateries could rob Coney Island of its character. But, as part of the lease agreements, all the companies agreed to make substantial investments in their rental properties.

The businesses also agreed to stay open year round and to hire new staff from the neighborhood.

“I can tell you we are going to have a full, blown-out boardwalk this summer,” said Councilman Domenic Recchia (D-Coney Island). “This is just the beginning. We are supposed to open more spots and expand next summer.”

Maybe this is one of those recessionary silver linings, but the fact remains, this is a win for the little guys.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC