http://therealdeal.com/blog/2012/09/...Estate+News%29
September 20, 2012 03:00PM
By Adam Pincus
Quote:
Several Manhattan real estate insiders speaking on a panel this morning poured cold water on an ambitious proposal from Mayor Michael Bloomberg to rezone the aging Midtown East business district —with one executive saying it would never be realized and another predicting any impact would not be felt for 10 or 20 years.
Robert Lapidus, president of L&L Holding, which is planning to develop an office tower at 425 Park Avenue in the middle of the proposed zone, predicted Bloomberg’s attempt to spur Midtown East development would ultimately fail or be so watered down as to have little impact.
“It is a great idea that is not really going to come into fruition,” Lapidus told the audience during one of two panels today presented by commercial real estate publisher Bisnow covering the state of the New York market. “There are a lot of unintended consequences that have not been fully analyzed. Whatever is going to get passed is just not going to be so consequential, which is unfortunate.”
Another panelist, Leslie Himmel, a partner with property owner Himmel + Meringoff, backed the plan but said it would be years before the impact was felt.
“I think it may take a decade or two for an effect to happen. I agree in the short run it may not have a big effect,” she said.
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I'm not very concerned about this news and neither should anybody else be. This tower and all the others in the midtown re-zoning district will happen once all the current projects at the WTC site, Hudson Yards Area, 15 Penn and the Brookfield owned plot are completed because nothing will stop those pre-war office towers and the post war boxes from aging.
The need for new office space in New York City is going to get greater with every passing year and only the construction of new towers can solve this.