Vornado Exec: 125th Street MLB Project ‘Shut Down’

Another new development project canceled.

Speaking at an investor conference yesterday, Vornado CFO Joseph Macnow gave word that the company’s troubled plans for Harlem Park, an office tower on 125^th Street, have been officially scuttled.

“We’ve shut down a couple of development projects,” Mr. Macnow said. “We were going to build the first office building in Harlem in 50 years on 125^th Street and Park Avenue. We’ve shut that project down. The economics are not warranted today to do that job.”

Vornado had once wanted to build a 630,000-square-foot office building as a home for a Major League Baseball television network. The developers said they had tentative leases on only about one-third of the space, and thus Vornado couldn’t find financing to build the tower.

In preparation for the tower, Vornado had even gone to the community board and negotiated a concession package in order to gain an exemption from a planned rezoning that would have limited the height.