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Midtown’s Westward Expansion Offers a Modern Crack at Manifest Destiny

Like the westward expansion that gripped the nation during the early to mid-1800′s, the expansion of Midtown Manhattan offers the city’s commercial real estate pioneers a modern crack at manifest destiny.

The trajectory of Midtown’s new building stock over the last seven decades tells a story of westward expansion that most recently struck Midtown West with the Hudson Yards development project.

“Hudson Yards really is the last frontier,” said James Delmonte, principal and vice president of research at Avison Young.  “Firms are looking for newer product and larger floor plates, largely because there really is no available land on the east side.” Read More

Development

Rendering of 7 Bryant Park

Developers Break Ground at 7 Bryant Park

Developers broke ground at 7 Bryant Park yesterday, with a consortium of public officials including Mayor Michael Bloomberg gathering to pitch the trophy office tower as a boon for the city.

Politicians are touting the planned 28-story, 470,000-square-foot steel and glass tower, slated for completion in the first quarter of 2015, as a magnet for good jobs, talent and companies.

“The best days are still to come to Bryant Park – a place the city has worked hard to bring roaring back to life,” Mr. Bloomberg said at the ceremony, adding that the project will bring “more top-tier, cutting-edge commercial space, and more leading companies and their tax revenue to Midtown Manhattan.” Read More

Development

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City Planning Commission Approves Pier 17 Retail Development Plans at South Street Seaport

The New York City Department of City Planning has approved The Howard Hughes Corporation’s plans to raze South Street Seaport’s Pier 17 and replace it with a two-level glass structure.

The commission agreed to allow the Dallas-based developer to overhaul the existing development with 120,000 square feet of retail and additional open space, including a 10,000-square-foot Read More

Development

Credit: EDC

City Seeks Developers for Seward Park Mixed-Use Project

After a decades-long stall in the plans for the Seward Park project in the Lower East Side, the city is seeking a developer (or developers) to build and operate what will eventually become an approximately 1.65-million-square-foot, mixed-use development.

The Economic Development Corporation issued an RFP today for the development project that will take shape on the largest contiguous parcel of city-owned land in Manhattan south of 96th Street – a plot of land near the intersection of Delancey and Essex streets that the EDC called a “void in the urban fabric for 45 years.”

The RFP marks another historic milestone for the Lower East Side, said Seth Pinsky, president of EDC. Read More

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Battery Maritime Building, an EB-5 recipient

EB-5 Legislation Clears Senate, Now Congress Awaits

Legislation related to the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, a financing pipeline that has been used to fund several major development projects in the city, has cleared one hurdle towards renewal.

Last week, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that would restore an important component of the program set to expire at the end of September. According to people familiar with EB-5 and the legislative process to preserve it, a similar bill must now pass through Congress in the next few weeks before the program sunsets on September 30, a deadline that could possibly cut off millions of dollars of financing for a number of construction projects. Read More

Development

Nat Rockett

71 Smith Street For Sale

71 Smith Street, a development site in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill, is up for grabs. Cushman & Wakefield and JRT Realty Group have been tapped to market the property, a parking lot.

The 27,582-square-foot parcel is located between Schermerhorn and State Streets and allows for a 311,801 square-foot mixed-use project to be built. Up to 206,530 square feet of residential space can be raised. Another 105,271 square feet for commercial use is also zoned for the site. Read More

Development

A rendering of Manhattan West

Brookfield to Mix Residential with Office

Brookfield Office Properties may tack on a residential portion to its 5.4 million square foot  Manhattan West project, The Wall Street Journal reported this morning.

The subsidiary of Canadian firm Brookfield Asset Management told reporters during its quarterly conference call last week that it might add 900 residential units to the development, located on Ninth Avenue Read More

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Fedex Gound.

Fedex Delivering New Distribution Center to Long Island City

Fedex Ground is building a new $56 million, 140,000-square-foot distribution center along Long Island City’s Borden Avenue. The new facility is being developed by Charlotte-based SunCap Property Group, which also recently completed a 142,139 square foot package sorting facility for the company in Orangetown, N.Y.

Fedex Ground spokesman David Westrick told The Commercial Observer that this most recent project will be owned by SunCap through a joint venture with Lexington Realty Trust, a New York-based REIT that invests in commercial properties net leased to major corporations. Read More

Development

Long Island Development Called "Significant"

A mixed-use development project for downtown Hempstead, Long Island, was officially deemed a “Project of Regional Significance,” by the Long Island Regional Planning Council, it was announced yesterday.

The redevelopment is a Public-Private Partnership between Renaissance Downtowns-Urban America (RDUA) and the Village of Hempstead set to rise around the Long Island Railroad station and the town’s bus depot.

Renaissance Downtown was recently named the developer in what is slated to be a $2 billion project. Read More