Panning for Gold at Lake Related

Just how long will Lake Related stick around? The former site of the Houseman and Fairbanks theaters and other buildings on West 42nd Street has been left in a state of soggy indecision since the Department of City Planning blocked an attempt in February to get a zoning bonus by including Cirque du Soleil at the base of a proposed apartment tower. In the meantime, something else happened: the property, owned by the well-connected Related Companies, was included in the Hudson Yards tax incentive district approved earlier this week. But to qualify for the tax break, the company would have to build commercial instead of residential. So would the tax breaks, along with the softening condo market, compel Related CEO Stephen Ross to build offices there instead? We asked Ross's spokesman Howard Rubenstein. "Yes, he said he would consider commercial development depending on where the market is. He'll have to analyze it when the time comes. He hasn't made any decisions." Taxes would be reduced by roughly 25 percent for the first 15 years after the building's completion and edge slowly up. -Matthew Schuerman CORRECTION: The original post erroneously said the tax breaks would not kick in until after a certain amount was built further west. In fact, the more that is built further west, the less the tax break would be.