Bryant Park
Those Reports About Fashion Week In Port Authority? Uh-Uh
On Wednesday, we wrote about a Real Estate Weekly report about how plans to relocate Fashion Week to the Port Authority were on hold because of issues over whether the bus terminal could accommodate additional traffic.
According to the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the Port Authority is one of many possible locations under consideration, but a deal to move the bi-weekly fashion shows to the grungy midtown bus terminal is nowhere near being finalized.
"Fashion Week is a vital asset to New York City and we are working expeditiously with IMG and the fashion industry to find a suitable new home,” said Patrick Murphy, the head of fashion/retail industry growth initiatives at the NYEDC. “The reports of an imminent or scuttled deal to move to the Port Authority Bus Terminal were erroneous.” read more »
Fashion Week in Bryant Park May Go Out of Style
The Bryant Park Corporation wants the current Fashion Week to be one of the last in the midtown plaza. It’s been working with city officials to scout potential new spaces for next year’s Fashion Weeks, said Daniel Biederman, president of the Bryant Park Corporation.
The problem? read more »
Last Chance to See Giant Bryant Park Snow Globe
Tomorrow is the last chance to view what could possibly be the creepiest advertising campaign to hit Manhattan in recent memory, the world's largest snowglobe in Bryant Park.
Live actors dressed in ice-hockey, ski, and snow-boarding gear have been holed up in the two-story tall vinyl dome that's 20 feet in diameter since Friday to promote tourism in Ontario. read more »
Developers Say They Can’t Build Green
The Afternoon Wrap: Thursday
- Insufferably awful novelist Jonathan Safran Foer and beautifully brilliant novelist Nicole Krauss ("Is she really going out with him?/Is she really gonna take him home tonight?") have apparently bought a $6.7 million Brooklyn brownstone that should give them and their two future children a floor each. [Gawker]
- Eater declares a deathwatch for the Russian Tea Room. (Didn't it just reopen?): "Our best guess is that the venue will morph into a very casual dining room and bar downstairs and a private events space upstairs. If that doesn't work, the building will become solely an events space." [Eater]
- Jonathan "Matrix" Miller sees gloomy times ahead for the national housing market and the U.S. economy based on info that's emerged so far this March. But all's not bad for Mr. Miller: "On the bright side, March Madness is nearly here and my son's basketball team won our town's 3rd grade basketball championship." (Note: The Real Estate assumes UNC will go all the way. Go Heels!) [Matrix]
- The upcoming Brooklyn Fashion Week(end) will feature 19 designers, nine tents and 40 models. We predict the event in Dumbo will be infinitely hipper than the Manhattan one in Bryant Park. That's how Brooklyn rolls. [DumboNYC] - Tom Acitelli
Quietly, Midtown Asserts Its Dominance
The Afternoon Wrap: Wednesday
- Marvel at the above top-secret image of future Cooper Square Hotel! When that glittery monolith goes up on Bowery, the East Village will have officially lost its last shred of punkish sleaze. (Now the area is sleazy in the shiny-condo way.) [Curbed]
- Is Bryant Park a pretty place for an ice-skating date, or a festering wound of corporate sin? Critics think rich donors influence who can access NYC park facilities, and that the commercial development of parks has made them into "fiefs where political gatherings are discouraged." [L.A. Times, via ArchNewsNow]
- Metropolis' love affair with Yale man Robert A.M. Stern didn't end with Wednesday's Valentine. The mag interviews him this week, on the occasion of his new book--which is apparently "bigger than the Manhattan Yellow Pages." [Mtrpls] - Max Abelson
The Round-Up: Tuesday
- '06 record year for Brooklyn home-building permits. [NY Post]
- Take a tour of almost-done 1 Bryant Park. [NY Post]
- Newmark Knight Frank retail bigs jump ship. [NY Post]
- Pomeranc bringing Smyth hotel to Financial District. [NY Post]
- Blackstone raises its bid for Equity Office. [NY Times]
- Recent deaths highlight city elevator safety. [NY Times]
- Ex-member uses Council envelopes for real-estate biz. [Daily News]
- Park Slope stores crack down on strollers. [NY Sun]
Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.
Fashion Boutique Closes on 1 Bryant Park Lease
In related news, The Real Deal reports in its current issue that Elie Tahari is also busy buying the entire east end of Long Island.
Making in-roads in the Hamptons and now with Durst? Some grand plan at work here?
- John Koblin1 Bryant Park Nears Full; Lever House at $150 a Foot
In This Week's Observer...
- 1 Bryant Park Inches Toward 100 Percent Occupancy
"The budding 54-story 1 Bryant Park is still a year from opening, but recent dealings have nudged the tower toward 100 percent occupancy."
Lever House at $150 a Foot
"Equity-investment firm Hellman and Friedman has signed a lease for the penthouse in Lever House at 390 Park Avenue." Go to Commercial Breaks by John Koblin. - Manhattan Chain Bets on 24-Hour Tanning "With a 24-hour ATM, a 24-hour Hot & Crusty, and a 24-hour Dunkin Donuts all operating along the same Upper East Side block, it seems only fitting that Beach Bum Tanning is also open around the clock." Go to Counter Espionage by Chris Shott.
- Get Beneath Manhattan Housing Market with Subway "Like the Manhattan housing market, steady demand and limited options buoy the New York subway's enduring popularity." Go to The Lab by Tom Acitelli.
- Outfoxing Murdoch for Apartment Sales Record "If philanthropist Loida Lewis gets what she's asking for her ninth-and-tenth-floor duplex at 834 Fifth Avenue, Rupert Murdoch's record-breaking purchase (right upstairs in the same building!) will be relegated to the celestial dustbin of Manhattan real-estate." Queer Eye for the Brooklyn Brownstone! "Swishy television foodie Ted Allen, who tells heterosexuals what to eat on the hit Bravo program, has sold his $2.75 million, five-room loft at the chic Chelsea Atelier to go renovate a brownstone in Brooklyn." Go to Manhattan Transfers by Max Abelson.
- Selling Homes in the Shadow of Atlantic Yards "Sellers and brokers are warning that the prospect of 10-plus years of construction on Atlantic Yards will complicate future home sales, if it is not doing so already." Go to story by Matthew Schuerman. Sign up for The Observer's weekly real estate news email blast.
Coliseum Books 'Trying To Hold On,' Auction Looming
Cool logo and "one of the best retail locations," says auctioneer.
More than a month after the news first broke, Coliseum Books founding partner George Leibson informs us via e-mail that the hallowed literary haunt is still bankrupt:
Dear Friends of Coliseum Books,It is with great sadness that I inform you of our decision to seek protection from our creditors through a bankruptcy filing.
Since opening our store on 57th Street in July of 1974, it has been our pleasure to bring you the best selection of new and backlist books. After closing that store in January 2002, when the lease expired, we searched long and hard for a suitable new location and thought we had found one here on 42nd Street. Business started more slowly than we had hoped but continued to build until this year, when increased competition from discount stores and book chain stores and the internet started to take their toll.
We are trying to hold on through the holidays. Although our inventory is not as strong as before, we still have many interesting books. Any support you can give will be much appreciated and will help us pay off our debts.
Thank you all for your loyal support.
George S. Leibson Founding Partner
Keen Realty is auctioning off the Coliseum's lease next month. read more »
The rent on its 10,449-square-foot location at 11 West 42nd Street is "below market," according to Keen, at just $76.08 per square foot, with a whopping 17 years of Bryant Park-area tenancy remaining. The consultants are accepting bids through Dec. 12. - Chris ShottBryant Park to Make Up for Fashionless Weeks
Dan Biederman said the Bryant Park Corporation decided in September to oust the twice-yearly Fashion Week because it was taking up too much time and space. A compromise reached by Mayor Bloomberg will keep the event in the park this February but force it to move in time for the following show next fall.
"It does damage at times," he told us. "It also takes away from the public two months of free skating that we would otherwise offer. The ice rink has to close down in mid-January and it also takes away the entire month of September and the last part of August. That is the best part of the summer.... They have outgrown us."
The skating rink, which is sponsored by Citibank, brings in $300,000 beyond expenses, he said. The park will be able to add one or two events in the time period freed up by Fashion Week's departure, and Biederman says that he can get away with charging more for each event. "But those events will be open to the public and the public doesn't even necessarily have to see those sponsorships."He said Fashion Week is considering relocating to Lincoln Center or riverfront piers.
-Matthew SchuermanFashion Week Buys Time
Google's New Digs! And WiFi?
Wherefore WiFi?
According to Crain's, the new location will have the company's largest advertising sales office and its second biggest engineering center (only behind its main headquarters).
Google execs wouldn't say today whether their entry to their sleek Manhattan office would mean additional WiFi to the city beyond Bryant Park, where they already provide free service.
"You'll have to wait and see," New York Engineering Director Craig Nevill-Manning told Crain's. Google already gives free WiFi to the town of Mountain View, Calif., (its hometown south of San Francisco) and is making plans to expand it to San Francisco, according to Crain's. Don't get your hopes up. read more »
- John KoblinFrock You Very Much
Frock You Very Much
John Bartlett's Terrorpants
Welcome to the Pants-Terrordome. Photo: Getty Images
Worse picture—terrorshorts suit!—after the jump! read more »
Wednesday: 'Embrace' Versus 'Abject Pessimism'
One Bryant Park: more glory!
- 'Embrace your inner co-op'--or so says today's Times business section. The gleeful mantra has something to do with an impending real estate crash, and so-called liars' mortgages, and Philip Hubert, and especially Eddie Murphy's SNL character Mr. White. Exactly. (New York Times)
- The $1 billion Bank of America Tower strikes again. Law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld will take six floors at the One Bryant Park building, which brings the 2.1 million-sf tower to a 90% occupancy. Akin Gump will move from their digs at 590 Madison Avenue, paying around $100 per foot for their 15-year deal. (Globe St.)
- Meanwhile, in housing: the chipper chief US economist at Moody's says we're all "underestimating the dark side." Thus when the smoke clears from the real estate bubble, our "euphoria could turn into abject pessimism very quickly." But what if we were never euphoric? (WSJ)
- Meaningless reason to be happy years from now: A 'pedestrian network' running from the Hudson River to the Financial District will be built by 2009. Work has already started, for some reason, on a 100-foot passage connecting the World Financial Center with Ground Zero. (NY1)
- New York has astronomical housing costs (see: euphoria), and so the state must "radically rethink its approach to land use, transportation and school finance." But is the solution state-wide reform, or those utopic little 'transit villages'? The latter. (New York Times) - Max Abelson read more »
Thursday: One Bryant Park, One Jeopardized Bubble?
Not in N.Y.
- Akin Gump Stauss Hauer & Feld, a fancy group of fancy-named lawyers, takes 203,000 square feet in the Bank of America building at One Bryant Park. The firm, god bless them, will pay over $100 per square foot for the 41st through 46th floors. Bank of America gets the tip-top 51 for itself (plus 36), and developer Douglas Durst gets to be a very happy man. (Globe St.)
- There won't be a West Side stadium for the Olympics or the Jets, but at least the rail yards will be sold for half a billion dollars. (Sometimes The Metropolitan Transportation Authority seems so powerful). Next door, little Javits doesn't look bad either. (New York Times)
- Brooklyn's transportation system, on the other hand, hasn't been so fortunate. A 200-foot stretch of rail yard between Bay Ridge and Sunset Park has been unlocked for over a year. We've got nothing against illegal dumping or prostitution, though. (NY Daily News)
- The days of our nation's overpriced real estate are finally over. In New York, however, home prices are still inflated by 43 percent--so, really, the bubble is fine. (CNN/Money)
- If 16,000 people on Staten Island lose power, does it make a sound? Apparently not--at least when Queens is hogging all the attention again. (WCBS) Update: That happy developer is Douglas Durst, not David. - Max Abelson read more »
1 Bryant Park Is 0.8 Bryant Park
The Tents Are Down!
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Today At The Shows: Paris Hilton, Donald Trump, and... Kelly Osbourne?
Today, our own intrepid photographer ventured here and there between the "Virgin Vines" event, Oscar de la Renta, the Sony lounge, Charles Nolan, and all about the Tents of Shame. Even the pre-teens have their model-faces on, apparently. read more »
