NEW YORK | 1 Manhattan West | 995 FT | 71 FLOORS

[Antares41]

Both towers have a simple sleekness that I find somewhat appealing. But, no use falling in love with them since I'm sure they will change.

[FourOneFive]

Originally Posted by NYguy

Almost a direct copy, right down to the plaza between the towers...

(curbed.com)

Son of SOM Yards? love it.

[antinimby]

Originally Posted by Antares41

Both towers have a simple sleekness that I find somewhat appealing. But, no use falling in love with them since I'm sure they will change.

Or hate them, depending on what one's opinion of the design is but yeah they most likely will not be the final version.

They don't even know who the tenants are so there's no way to tailor the building to suit their needs. For instance, if it is a financial firm, they might want a larger base.

[Scruffy]

Sweetness! So much better than image of what I thought this would be. Fantastic

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by antinimby

They don't even know who the tenants are so there's no way to tailor the building to suit their needs. For instance, if it is a financial firm, they might want a larger base.

Not possible for the smaller tower, which is landlocked (somewhat like the 1,000 ft tower planned east of Penn Plaza). Or even for the taller tower which has a base that covers the width of its block. The space between the towers was mandated by the Hudson Yards zoning, as is the minimal number of parking spaces that has to be built. I'm still puzzled, because the site itself isn't deep enough for multiple lower levels and mechanical space.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by FourOneFive

Son of SOM Yards? love it.

I wonder which of the designs came first. What's odd is that the SOM railyard proposal is a much more detailed design, while here we're shown only a vague concept of a plan, even though they are highly similar. In fact, if you look at the extra large version (here) you can even see the similarity in the plaza.

[NYguy]

The old plan:




Relationship to other developments:

[Antares41]

Originally Posted by antinimby

Or hate them, depending on what one's opinion of the design is but yeah they most likely will not be the final version.

They don't even know who the tenants are so there's no way to tailor the building to suit their needs. For instance, if it is a financial firm, they might want a larger base.

True! although if you look at the rendering of the larger tower you see that the ceiling height along with the more obvious floor space increases dramatically about a 1/4 up, which IMO indicate that this building was illustrated for a financial firm in need of a large trading space in mind. Maybe it out there as a form of enticement. On another note: smaller tower shows an interesting reflection of MSG, although it appears that the PO is across the street.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Antares41

On another note: smaller tower shows an interesting
reflection of MSG, although it appears that the PO is across the street.

Yeah, MSG is on the opposite side of the Farley Building (shown just in the
foreground) where the new MSG will be located.

[NYguy]

Cut the original rendering down, the sleekness of the towers has grown on me.
Still, the taller tower needs a more distinctive top if it is to be distinguished from the parade of 1,000 footers that will fill the area.




Some of the west side's taller proposals...




And a parade of New York's tallest...

[FourOneFive]

^ wow. can we all say glass overload.

[NYC2ATX]

Originally Posted by FourOneFive

^ wow. can we all say glass overload.

GL-......GLLLL-.....GLLAAASSSSSS............OOOVERRRRLLLOOAAADDDD.

Altogether now.....

[Lecom]

With the wide, open plaza anchored by two bulky towers, this complex's street presence might be similar to that of the old WTC.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by FourOneFive

^ wow. can we all say glass overload.

That's what you get now, it isn't 1931 anymore. I prefer to say supertall overload.
We won't be seeing a boom like this again for a long time, if ever.

Originally Posted by Lecom

With the wide, open plaza anchored by two bulky towers, this complex's street presence
might be similar to that of the old WTC.

It reminded me of the old WTC as well, but this plaza is on a more practical scale,
the towers more integrated with the streetlife.

[Dac150]

What an amazing surprise to come home to after a weeks long vacation. I am very excited for the further development.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Dac150

What an amazing surprise to come home to after a weeks long vacation. I am very excited for the further development.

Also, lost in the excitement of the growing list of supertalls is the quietly growing list of 900 footers planned or proposed right now. Those are nothing to laugh at either, but they're being overshadowed by the supertalls.

[CoolCzech]

NYTimes.com

February 21, 2008

Work to Begin on Platform Over Tracks on the West Side
By CHARLES V. BAGLI

Despite a flagging economy, Brookfield Properties says it will start work in June on a $600 million platform over railroad tracks near Ninth Avenue, where it plans to build two towering office buildings.

Brookfield, a major commercial landlord in Manhattan, has owned the property between Ninth and Dyer Avenues, between 31st and 33rd Streets, for more than 22 years. But it has had difficulty luring a prominent company to what has long been regarded as Manhattan’s last real estate frontier.

The company now says that the time is ripe to begin work. Development is pushing westward, and the site is only one block west of Pennsylvania Station. The vacancy rate for Manhattan office buildings is still relatively low, and the credit markets should recover fairly quickly from the subprime mortgage crisis, said Richard B. Clark, chief executive of Brookfield.

“For a long time, we believed that the West Side would be the city’s next commercial zone,” Mr. Clark said. “It’s clear that the time is now to make something of this site.”

Brookfield’s project is no simple matter. More than half of the five-acre site is over railroad tracks, which extend from Pennsylvania Station to the West Side railyards. Brookfield must build a three-acre platform, while trains continue to run below, before it can start putting up its first building. It hopes to sign a major tenant during the two years the job is expected to take.

Brookfield’s architect, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, has designed two towers, a 1.9-million-square-foot building at the northeast corner of the site and a 3.4-million-square-foot building at the southeast corner.

In many respects, the project is a warm-up for the West Side railyards, where five developers are competing for the development rights. At the railyards, between 10th and 12th Avenues, from 30th to 34th Streets, developers will have to build two 13-acre platforms, at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion. They would then have the right to build 12 million square feet of high-rise office and residential buildings.

Brookfield is one of the five companies expected to submit a second round of bids to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority next Tuesday. But concerns about a slowing economy have grown since the sale process began, and many real estate executives and government officials worry that developers may reduce their offers.

Brookfield is not alone when it comes to pushing forward with new office projects. Even so, some real estate executives warn that some of those projects could be postponed, especially if the developer lacks an anchor tenant, and new buildings may not rise over the West Side railyards for years to come.

Over the past five years, developers have largely ignored office projects in favor of erecting lucrative residential towers, even though the destruction of the World Trade Center sharply reduced available office space. In that time, developers built only 16 commercial buildings with a total of 14.4 million square feet, according to the Real Estate Board of New York.

As companies expanded, space became tight and commercial rents soared, with many prime buildings now fetching more than $100 a square foot in annual rent. So developers are once again putting up office towers, some without an anchor tenant. There are four towers under construction, with a combined total of 6.7 million square feet, and another four towers with 11.3 million square feet planned.

SJP Properties is building a 1.1-million-square-foot tower at the southeast corner of Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street. Twelve blocks to the north, Boston Properties is excavating a site between 54th and 55th Streets for a 39-story, 1-million-square-foot building that is scheduled to be finished in 2010. A year from now, Boston Properties and its partner, Related Companies, plan to start a second tower, with 900,000 square feet, at Eighth Avenue between 45th and 46th Streets.

“We obviously continue to feel good about west Midtown,” said Robert E. Selsam, senior vice president of Boston Properties.

At the World Trade Center site downtown, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is building the 2.6-million-square-foot Freedom Tower, and JPMorgan Chase has signed a deal to erect a 1.3-million-square-foot building nearby. And over on Church Street, the developer Larry Silverstein is beginning work on what will be three 60-story skyscrapers with a total of 6.2 million square feet.

[Dac150]

This is excellent that this train is begining to roll. An exciting development this will be, given the fact of the construction process.

[NYonward]

Brookfield likes Manhattan as much as Toronto
Real Estate Weekly
Daniel Geiger
2/22/2008

But will Brookfield build on 9th without an anchor?

Yesterday The New York Times reported that Brookfield Properties plans to begin readying its development site on 9th Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets for construction of up to 5.5 million square feet. The decision to begin the work, which entails building a platform over the LIRR rail yard tracks that run beneath the site, was first reported by rew-online.com on February 7 after the company’s chief executive, Richard Clark, mentioned that the construction would commence during a conference call that day.

The Times’ story provides a first look at renderings of the curvaceous pair of office towers that Brookfield wants to build on the parcel. The question is whether the firm will begin building the skyscrapers, once it has prepared the site, without an anchor tenant in place. The New York Observer, in a post yesterday, indicated that the answer to that would be no, a logical assumption considering the uncertain demand for office space now that the economy appears to be entering a pronounced slowdown.

On top of that, Brookfield is one of the bidders for the West Side rail yards a block west of its 9th Avenue site. Millions of square feet of office space and residential development are planned for the rail yards site, a major project that may discourage Brookfield from adding more supply in the area on speculative basis.

But during the conference call, Clark made an interesting comparison when assessing the risk of developing projects in the different office markers where Brookfield has a presence. Houston, which Clark described as a strong market because of the concentration of energy sector tenants there, was a city where Brookfield wouldn’t develop on spec because he said that other developers are planning projects that could quickly create a glut of supply.

“It makes us nervous,” Clark said. “It’s more risk than Toronto or New York.”

In Toronto, Brookfield is in the process of building a new office complex, the Bay Adelaide Center, whose later phases may be built on spec. If Brookfield likes Manhattan as much as Toronto as Clark seemed to suggest, could that mean the REIT may in fact go ahead with the 9th Avenue project, especially if it doesn’t win the right to develop the rail yards?

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by tonyo

In Toronto, Brookfield is in the process of building a new office complex, the Bay Adelaide Center, whose later phases may be built on spec. If Brookfield likes Manhattan as much as Toronto as Clark seemed to suggest, could that mean the REIT may in fact go ahead with the 9th Avenue project, especially if it doesn’t win the right to develop the rail yards?

That's a question that can't be answered in the short term.

Brookfield’s project is no simple matter. More than half of the five-acre site is over railroad tracks, which extend from Pennsylvania Station to the West Side railyards. Brookfield must build a three-acre platform, while trains continue to run below, before it can start putting up its first building. It hopes to sign a major tenant during the two years the job is expected to take.

But two years is a lot of time to work it out. I was surprised with the speed tenants were found for the west side railyards, and this site sits in between that and the MSG/Penn Station development - both developments larger than this one. I'm confident they'll get a tenant, even if it's just spillover. This will be the key that ties it all together.