High Line

Tishman Speyer, the newly-chosen developers of the West Side rail yards, would like to eliminate the northernmost spur of the High Line.

Friends of the High Line president and co-founder Robert Hammond doesn't believe it's going to happen—after all, he's already overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles in the conversion of the elevated railway into a new city park.

When he first went to Mayor Bloomberg, he said, "The Mayor said 'Don't show us pretty pictures. We've got enough parks, we can't pay for them all.'"

So Hammond showed the city it could make money off the High Line—or at least, property owners in West Chelsea could and some other money would trickle down.

"I've seen this movie before," Hammond said today of Tishman Speyer's plans, speaking at the 2nd Annual Trends in New York City Land Use and Real Estate Development conference down at New York Law School this afternoon. "I think we'll get the whole Line," he said.  read more »

Halcyon Asset Management recently picked up a set of two properties next to the High Line for $48 million, 511 West 25th Street and 521-541 West 25th Street, according to city records.

So is the firm, as are so many landowners in the neighborhood, planning to shed the former industrial buildings-turned art galleries for new high-end apartments on the site?

Not quite, says Halcyon COO Thomas Hirschfeld.  read more »

The allure of the High Line seems to be inspiring nearby landowners to grip their air rights tight, causing what some developers see as a shortage of development rights that could slow construction in the area surrounding the viaduct-turned-parkland.

The Real Estate Board of New York, responding to the concerns of multiple de  read more »

Laurence Gluck apparently has an eye for the High Line. Mr. Gluck’s Stellar Management just paid $161 million for the large warehouse-like building at 450 West 16th Street, which borders the rail viaduct-turned parkland, according to city records.

The building, at eight stories and 286,000 square feet, according to PropertyShark, is home to Milk Studios, which offers space for artists.  read more »

“I’m a little biased, but I think it’s great,” said Chelsea resident Brandon Sorlie of the High Line, the West Side “park in the sky” which has captured the philanthropic imagination of the city’s social and fashionable types.

Mr. Sorlie’s boyfriend, Rick Little, is the operations director for Friends of the High Line, the rail-bed’s indefatigable troupe of fundraisers, so Mr. Sorlie is no stranger to events like Friday’s Design Auction Preview Party at Phillips de Pury (peach bellinis, elaborately-prepared shrimp, worn-looking mid-century modern furniture being offered for prices like $150,000—the low estimate for a couch by Fernando + Humberto Campana which was possibly made of colorful erasers). The event was sponsored by Friends of the High Line.

Mr. Sorlie has himself stood on the High Line, a feat few others can claim (it opens to the public next fall). “I’ve been able to go up there since it’s been under construction, the whole bed is cleared, and they have mock-ups of the furniture so you can see what it’s going to look like,” said Mr. Sorlie. “Walking down the High Line is amazing, because you don’t see a car for blocks and blocks.”

Indeed, the idea behind the High Line has become as important as the actual progress on the dilapidated rail-bed, and that idea is a little different for everyone.  read more »

Novac Noury, inventor of the spurting keyboard, wants his property next to AndrééBalazs’ Standard hotel to be a High Line escape route.  read more »

State and city officials said Tuesday night that they would try to save the three northernmost blocks of the High Line when they choose private developers for the western rail yards, but they made no promises.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owns the six blocks worth of rail yards in the West 30s, will be asking bidders to submit two plans: one in which the sections of elevated track along 30th Street and 12th Avenue would be preserved and the other in which they would be removed, according to city officials. The M.T.A. would determine whether the lost profit from maintaining the train track would be worth it.  read more »