The New York Observer » Eliot Brown

Stuy Town Creditors Now Battling About Grammar

Looks like things have gotten so bad in the fight between Stuyvesant Town creditors CW Capital and Pershing Square/Winthrop Realty Trust (PSW), that they're now fighting over punctuation.

From the latest brief in the ongoing fight, filed yesterday by CW Capital:

Without any explanation, PSW injects the doctrine of last antecedent to convince this Court that Read More

Stringer Gives Extell Thumbs Down on Riverside Center

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer yesterday delivered his official thoughts on the planned Riverside Center housing development on the Upper West Side, recommending against the proposed 2,500-apartment project (with conditions).

The development is the last piece of Riverside South, the giant string of apartment towers along the West Side Highway that were started by Donald Trump Read More

Related Cos. Moves Closer to Paying Rent on West Side Rail Yards

One down, two to go.

The Related Cos. is a bit closer to paying rent on the West Side rail yards--valued at about $1 billion over the course of its 99-year lease with the M.T.A.

The commercial Architecture Billings Index has, for three months now, been slightly over 50 (it was 50.4 in July). Scores Read More

Stuy Town Financing, Made Lucid

For those who find themselves confused by the mess that the fight over Stuyvesant Town has become, with different layers of creditors warring in court, someone's taken the time to make it crystal clear in a chart:

From Work

Still confused?

While perhaps not the intended effect, the tangle that is the chart illustrates just why Stuy Read More

Ackman/Winthrop on Stuy Town Foreclosure: Yes We Can

The activist investor team of Bill Ackman and Winthrop Realty Trust has fired back in the ongoing creditor fight over the control of Stuyvesant Town. The team, which is trying to wrest control of the 80-acre East Side property amid a legal challenge by the holders of a first mortgage, filed papers in court Read More

Extell Ups Below-Market Rate Housing at Riverside Center

Extell Development has increased the level of below-market rate housing to go in its planned Riverside Center mega-development, a 2,500-unit project planned for the western reaches of the Upper West Side.

Based on Extell submissions to the Department of City Planning filed last week, the developer apparently intends to increase the level to 20 percent of Read More

15 Penn Stokes Boston Mayor’s Rage Against Steve Roth

Looks like Boston Mayor Tom Menino has not cooled off very much on the subject of Vornado.

Earlier this year, the mayor, upset about the stalled progress at a half-demolished, prime, Vornado-owned development site in downtown Boston, proclaimed his rage about comments made by Vornado chairman Steve Roth, who indicated he had encouraged blight on a Read More

W.T.C. Silverstein Deal Finalized, Finally

After a year-long public battle, an expensive arbitration, five months of final negotiations, last-minute grumblings, and a side deal with New Jersey, a new agreement with developer Larry Silverstein to rebuild the World Trade Center is complete.

The board of the Port Authority today voted in favor of a deal struck between Mr. Silverstein, Read More

In Pricey W.T.C. Deal, Some Consolation for New Jersey

On Thursday, the board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is expected to approve a new deal with developer Larry Silverstein to redevelop the World Trade Center. The new package, tentatively agreed to in March, was long fought--for a while last year, such an accord seemed hard to imagine.

In Read More

City Council Approves Anthony Malkin’s Nightmare

The full City Council has approved a 1,200-foot office tower planned by Vornado Realty Trust to rise atop the Hotel Pennsylvania, two blocks from the Empire State Building.

The vote came this afternoon, less than two weeks after Empire State Building owner Anthony Malkin launched a public push to block the skyscraper, warning it Read More

W.T.C. Silverstein Deal Nears Final Approval

Looks like the final deal with Larry Silverstein to redevelop the World Trade Center may not have been so hard to put together after all.

Following a rocky initial reception from some Port Authority commissioners, the bi-state agency's board is now scheduled to meet tomorrow, with the expectation that it will approve the Silverstein Read More

Will Silverstein W.T.C. Deal Be Done by 9/11 Anniversary?

Back in March, after more than a year of stalemate, fighting and negotiating, a deal was struck between the Bloomberg administration, the Paterson administration, the Port Authority and developer Larry Silverstein on a path forward for two office towers on the World Trade Center site.

The city, state and Port Authority would each put in $200 Read More

What ESB/Vornado and ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ Fights Have in Common

The owners of the Empire State Building today released a poll that queried people around the country about the place of the skyscraper in New York City's skyline.

The point of the poll was to show that indeed this building has an iconic place in Americans' vision of New York, and that changing the skyline would be bad Read More

City Wins Key Willets Point Court Case

A lawsuit challenging the development of Willets Point has been dismissed by a state judge, handing the Bloomberg administration a key victory in its attempts to transform the industrial area by Citi Field into a housing and retail center.

The lawsuit, brought by a set of business and land owners in the project's footprint, challenged the Read More

ESB vs. 15 Penn Plaza: Make Your Voice Heard!

For those who have strong feelings on whether Vornado chairman Steven Roth should be able to build a 1,200-foot tower two blocks away from the 1,250-foot Empire State Building, there's now an outlet.

Over at the Municipal Art Society's Web site, there's an online poll.

Now one day in, things are running pretty even. With 874 votes Read More