NEW YORK | Hudson Rise (470 11th Ave) | 220 M / 720 FT | FLOORS

[chris08876]

Permits Filed: 700-Foot Hudson Rise Hotel, 462-470 11th Avenue

Developed by Sean Ludwick’s Black House (supposedly in partnership with a Chinese private equity firm) and Siras Development, the mixed-use building will include 242 hotel rooms, 108 condo hotel rooms (which are purchased for part-time use, but must be rented out as hotel rooms for the majority of the year, as with the Trump SoHo) and 47 regular condominiums at the top. The tower will soar to 700 feet spread over just 47 stories, for very roomy average floor-to-floor heights of nearly 15 feet.

Per the permit application, the 47 condos will be spread over 95,000 square feet of residential space, for a unit average of around 2,000 square feet, and the total construction area of the building will reach nearly 420,000 square feet of floor space.

Goldstein, Hill & West is the architect of record, but Archilier Architecture – headquartered here in New York, but doing most of their work in China – is responsible for the design. The tower features a number of glassy boxes stacked, skewed and cantilevered beside a straight masonry edge, with a few planted outdoor spaces filling the voids.

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http://www.yimbynews.com/2014/09/per...th-avenue.html

[NYguy]

It's not the tallest, but glad to see momentum spreading throughout the Hudson Yards...


http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/Jo...ssdocnumber=01

A 47 STORY MIXED USE NEW BUILDING

Building Height (ft.): 700
Building Stories: 47

[NYguy]

http://commercialobserver.com/2014/1...-hudson-yards/

Hudson Rise’s Shanghai Club to Bring the Far East to Hudson Yards





BY DANIELLE SCHLANGER
11/05/14

With the unabated influx of Chinese capital pouring into New York City, one would assume that established Chinese businessmen would have a cozy spot to grab a drink, seal a deal, and shmooze their American counterparts in an authentic Chinese setting.

Yet, no such space exists.

These expats are largely relegated to American eateries or Chinese restaurants where the sweet and sour chicken tastes closer to something you’d find in to Bayonne than Beijing. However, the proposed Shanghai Club at the Hudson Rise Hotel is preparing to change this by providing a private space for those working or living abroad.

“China is right now the second largest economic entity in the world. And New York is one of the largest international cities. But there is no such domain for the Chinese business people to have in Manhattan,” said Shang Dai, the CEO and principal of Kuafu Properties.

Mr. Dai’s company, along with New York-based Siras Development, are responsible for constructing the Hudson Rise Hotel, located on 11th Avenue across from the Jacob Javits Convention Center. When completed, the luxury property is expected to rise 47 stories over the new Hudson Yards neighborhood and include 242 hotel rooms, 47 condos, and 108 condo-hotel rooms. The Shanghai Club will be a critical tenet of their property (although developers are quick to point out that plans are still tentative).

Mr. Dai used his own experience trying to conduct business in Manhattan when planning the exclusive club.

“I have this problem going out and having dinner,” explained Mr. Dai. “I don’t have much choice. I either go to Chinatown, which is not very impressive, or I have western food. We’re having this difficulty all the time when we’re meeting with people from China and meeting their American partners.”

Mr. Dai also said he often has to enlist his friends to get into the Harvard Club, the Yale Club, or the Cornell Club to have a decent meeting place.

Though plans have not yet been finalized, the Shanghai Club is expected to have a high-end authentic Chinese restaurant. Mr. Dai explained that the food will be cooked in the traditional Chinese way and not catered to American taste.

“Right now, restaurants in the city know that people in the states like food sweeter and not as spicy,” said Mr. Dai. “This is a restaurant like in Shanghai or Beijing that the Chinese will think it’s good.”

The space will also include a traditional tea house, which will provide customers with a calm and slow atmosphere to talk about business.

“The tea culture in China is a big culture,” said Mr. Dai. “In China, you go to Beijing and Shanghai, you see very good tea and people who are [pouring] the tea are trained. They will tell you what year the tea is from, where the tea is coming from.” Mr. Dai also highlighted that in China, business is usually conducted over tea. In America, he noted, restaurants usually have only green or black tea and “you don’t have a place to get very good Chinese tea.”

The space will likely have a wine bar to complement the Chinese Tea House, underscoring the fusion of east and west.

Mr. Dai also stressed that the club is looking to attract those in the highest stratosphere of Chinese society, and the Shanghai Club will likely forge connections with prestigious Chinese clubs to encourage membership.

“We’re in discussion with [prestigious Chinese clubs] for co-memberships, if we have cooperation set up between the clubs,” said Mr. Dai. “Those are the people we want to bring in. The business people are very established in China. They have intention to explore the U.S. market.”

Yet there will likely still be room for Americans to obtain membership. Mr. Dai said he would ideally like the club to be 50 percent Chinese and 50 percent American.

“The fundamental purpose of the whole club is to create the platform to have east meets west,” said Mr. Dai.

[sparkling]

Chinese private equity shop Kuafu seeks $32M in Hudson Yards bonus rights



January 13, 2015
Rich Bockmann

Chinese private equity firm Kuafu Properties is applying for a pair of building-incentive programs for its 47-story, mixed-use condo/hotel it is developing at 470 11th Avenue with BlackHouse Development and Siras Development. The partners are looking to acquire more than 170,000 square feet of bonus development rights at a cost of $31.6 million, which would allow for a project of nearly 320,000 square feet.

The floor-to-area-ratio bonuses will push the 38th Street project, termed the Hudson Rise Hotel, from a base density of roughly 140,000 square feet up to 319,905 square feet, the maximum potential for the site. Hudson Rise will include 42 condo units spread out over nearly 90,000 square feet on top of approximately a quarter of a million square feet of hotel use, right across from the Jacob Javits Center.

Fellow developers, including Eliot Spitzer’s Spitzer Engineering and the Moinian Group, have already tapped into these two pools of bonus rights. Spitzer is building a hotel of more than 400,000 square feet on West 35th Street, while Moinian is building a 1.8 million square-foot office tower known as 3 Hudson Boulevard.

Kuafu has submitted a pair of land use applications to the Department of City Planning, which certifies the project for the bonuses. The first bonus will cost Kuafu $14.8 million, which it will pay to the nonprofit Hudson Yards Infrastructure Corporation to purchase 118,483 square feet of District Improvement Bonuses. The price for those bonuses is fixed at $125.36 per square foot.

The second source of bonus FAR takes a fair bit of calculation. The additional 53,318 square feet of density comes from about 2.5 million square feet of air rights that the city created over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s eastern rail yards in 2005. The bonuses cost 65 percent of the per-square-foot assessed price of the receiving site.

Moinian has already received the assessment for its office property, which priced the bonuses at roughly $350 per foot. In Kuafu’s case, the rights will cost $315 per square foot, placing the total price at $31.6 million. Representatives for the developer couldn’t be reached for comment. - See more at: http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/01/....BqPIkPM0.dpuf

[NYguy]

^ The mechanism that all Hudson Yards towers will use to gain their size. It will play out in similar fashion in midtown east, once that rezoning is passed.

[hunser]

http://kuafuproperties.com/hudson-rise/

[Zapatan]

Awesome building!

[NYguy]

A little busy, but I like it.

It also seems to have a bit of the Asian influence the tower will have.

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/02/...yards-project/

Breakup: Kuafu Properties looks to dissolve partnership at Hudson Yards project
Petition describes “deadlock” with partners Siras Development and Sean Ludwick, with “many millions” at stake




February 27, 2015
By E.B. Solomont and Kyna Doles

Kuafu filed a petition Friday to dissolve the partnership in New York State Supreme Court, saying the 380,000-square-foot project, known as Hudson Rise, stands to lose “many millions of dollars,” and that the continued partnership would “cripple” further development. The petition cites Ludwick’s track record of negative publicity and questionable financial judgment, and alleges Siras breached the trio’s partnership agreement by giving an exclusive sales agreement to the brokerage Compass. The result of both, the petition says, is that the partners are trapped in an absolute “deadlock,” with “no hope of reconciliation.”

According to the petition, the developers formed a partnership called Reedrock Kuafu Development Company LLC in November 2013, in order to buy a $115 million development site at the corner of 38th Street and Eleventh Avenue. (Kuafu held a 50 percent stake in the partnership, and Siras and Ludiwck shared the other 50 percent, according to the petition.) According to the petition, they planned to build a new high-rise that would include retail, a luxury hotel and luxury condos with a total sellout of $600 million.

Kuafu CEO Shang Dai said Kuafu would provide “most of the equity” for the project, around $135 million, during an interview with The Real Deal at Kuafu’s office in mid-February.

According to the petition, Reedrock is the site’s developer, although the title is held by an entity dubbed Bifrost Land LLC. In June 2014, Bifrost entered a loan agreement with UBS Real Estate Securities to borrow about $60.9 million — including $44 million that would be drawn at closing — to purchase the property. The petition states, however, that problems with Ludwick emerged as the developers started raising money for the project.

To date, Bifrost raised more than $96 million for the project, of which Siras and Ludwick contributed only $7.5 million, according to the petition. On top of the low contribution, Kuafu subsequently learned that Ludwick – on behalf of Bifrost – had agreed to pay an “unreasonable and excessive” loan brokerage fee on a potential $20 million loan, the petition states.

Meanwhile, Ludwick’s reputation had become an issue. Last year, he was accused of entering his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and creating lewd drawings on murals he had painted. He pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office.”

Citing “problematic behavior” by Ludwick, the petition says that terms of the UBS loan prohibit Ludwick from using the name Blackhouse Development in connection with the Hudson Yards project. But, the petition says, Ludwick violated that restriction in press releases....

[ILNY]

Parking is gone and the site has been fenced off.

[NYguy]

http://www.thisismelo.com/feature/ar...e-nyc-skyline/

Shaping the NYC Skyline
Kai Sheng, CEO and Managing Principal at Archilier Architecture, discusses the inspiration behind the innovative Hudson Rise Hotel.





By Katherine Valentino
3.3.15

New York City’s iconic skyline is getting a big update. Construction is under way on The Hudson Rise Hotel, with a targeted opening in 2017. The 420,000 square foot tower will be located in the New York Hudson Yards Mixed-Use Development and will include 20 floors of hotel, 328 hotel condos, and 40 super luxury condo apartments. This Is Melo spoke with Kai Sheng, CEO and Managing Principal at Archilier Architecture, the architecture firm behind this project, about the concept, as well as the process that went into designing this massive building.

Headquartered in New York City, Archilier truly understands the city’s culture, and embodies it in their designs. Described on Archilier’s site as a “a tower of alternating volumes and dramatic terraces with sweeping Hudson River views,” and standing at 220 meters tall, it is sure to be unique and beautiful addition to NYC. Just like the Chinese lanterns that inspired the design, let’s hope this “beacon of light on the west side highway” brings good fortune and blessings to all who encounter it.

What three words do you think best describe Archilier Architecture’s design aesthetic?

Sheng: Sensual, Contextual, Contemporary

We are striving to create memorable, evocative architecture within the cultural and environmental context. Seductive form making and place making rooted in the indigenous culture and geography while employing the contemporary vocabulary is our strength. This design philosophy is evident throughout our design, be it a development of super high rise towers of mixed use of over 4 million sf in China; or 400,000 sf of high rise mixed use in New York or a 35 room boutique hotel in the secluded resort in south China. Our signature style is one that grows from project’s distinct context, but never a preset style per se.

Why were traditional Chinese lanterns the inspiration for the design in your Hudson Yards project? Did you draw any inspiration from the city of New York itself? What is their significance?

Sheng: Actually New York City itself was the inspiration for the lantern idea, as we always say the city never sleeps and it is known for its towers with lights as beacons of NY City.

I grew up in China, where there’s a lantern festival every year. Kids would run around with lanterns, and some with a string of lanterns stacked up. Lanterns symbolize good fortune and blessings of harmony in China. It would be the ultimate lanterns if to “string” and “hang” at the tower in Manhattan joining the city’s sea of lights. This design parti also has a very practical significance, since the pent house always has the most value, as the “lantern” massing goes in and out , terraces are being created, and we have in fact created multiple pent houses or villas in the sky if you will with sweeping Hudson river views.

I believe, at the end of day, whatever the design narrative or inspirations might be for a given design, the end product should be good, relevant and inspirational without having to be attached to a story or narrative to succeed. The inspiration can be personal at times, but the architecture needs to be solid for all to experience.

What were your first steps in designing when you took on the project? What was your thought-process behind the design? How long was the concept design process?

Sheng: The project started for us as a design competition, we were not given much time, about 5-6 weeks including Christmas and New Year holidays to try to come up with a winning concept. We were up against some of the best established firms in New York, our design team understood we must win on creative solutions to a very difficult project with a limited site foot print and complex programs of Retail, Hotel and Residential uses..

Our first step has always been to understand the very practical problems /goals from client and the most efficient diagram for the basic solution, then we find the most creative ways to get there, not creative for creative sake, but opportunities to marry the two, like the “lanterns” are opportunities for multiple penthouses (which offer the best return) with limited floor plate girth. At Archilier, we never first preconceive a form, say a “bird” and then try to force a “rabbit” in a bird’s skin later on. In creating the final design, we had multiple rounds of design charrette and pin ups, my ping pong table at home became my best sketch board over the holidays.

How iconic do you think the NYC skyline is? What does it mean for you to have your design amongst other legendary structures? What other high rise projects are you working on?

Sheng: New York has some of the most memorable skylines in the world, with iconic towers like the Empire States Building , Chrysler Building. They have been well documented in the movies and classic photographs or in other art forms. I have lived and worked in New York for almost 30 years, the city has always inspired me. I am really proud and humbled to have Archilier contributing to its legendary skyline.

How do you think your tagline “Designing the Future Together” applies to this project? And what will set this building apart from others in New York?

Sheng: We consider our client part of our team in all the projects we do. Together as one team, we help to create and realize our client’s vision, and In doing so, we are always trying to be forward looking. At Hudson Yards, the client wanted a tower that is unique, distinctive and extroverted with multiple open spaces, while serving the needs of the ever changing New York market.

Engaging in a constant dialogue with our client, together we have created an over 700 foot-tall tower divided in three sections : a stunning transparent glass atrium with a hotel sky lobby on top of the expressive podium; smooth-skinned hotel and hotel condos with expansive views of the Hudson River and New York City at mid-section; and the top portion of the structure, with condominiums, defined by three large glass cubes that are pulled out of the building’s volume, envisioned as a string of hanging urban “lanterns” that serve as beacons on the city’s skyline.

The end result is a tower with many distinctive green open spaces that speak to the guests, residents as well as the neighborhood. Between the three sections of the building, and atop each “lantern,” we carved out open air spaces and terraces that include both common and private outdoor/indoor pools and dozens of green spaces that reflect an environmentally sensitive approach to design. Our design offers many unique features, Floors 28-30, for example, atop the hotel section of the building, are designed for an expansive, open rooftop club with a bar, a high end restaurant and a cantilevered sky pool with views of the Hudson River. This pool can be made completely open with motorized doors to let in the Hudson breeze.

In what ways is the design of the project progressive in terms of architecture?

Sheng: From the outset , we are looking to break away from the boxy towers you see everywhere, or the form making exercises with excessive expressions for out of context expression sake. We are happy to have designed a tower that expresses the three distinctive functions with green open spaces throughout, from the podium to the very top resulting in a very unique high rise tower.

What part of this project are you most excited about?

Sheng: Its rich green open spaces, especially the multiple terraces at the club level, where one can taking in the river view sipping a cool drink, or gazing into the distance in the cantilevered infinity pool. I am also quite excited about the urban lanterns we created; I hope they would become beacons of light on the west side highway.

[sparkling]

Siras accuses Kuafu of plotting to boot them from Hudson Rise
Sumaida, Verma claim that Kuafu's media statements violated operating agreement

March 20, 2015
Mark Maurer

Real estate litigations, like deaths, often come in threes. In the tale of the condo-hotel project known as Hudson Rise, the latest twist is that Siras Development is suing Kuafu Properties, arguing that Kuafu’s move to dissolve the joint venture is unlawful and damaging to the 47-story project.
Siras principals Saif Sumaida and Ashwin Verma allege in a suit filed yesterday that Kuafu had plotted to boot them from the partnership for months, prior to the petition filed last month. The suit also arrives just after Sean Ludwick sued Sumaida and Verma, his former BlackHouse Development partners, for allegedly freezing him out of projects.

Sumaida and Verma are seeking $50 million in damages from Kuafu, a New York-based Chinese development firm. In the suit, they allege that Kuafu’s recent comments in the media breach the partnership’s operating agreement.
The suit cites a New York Daily News article in which Kuafu’s attorney, Larry Hutcher of Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, described the partnership as a “bad marriage.” Siras claims Kuafu’s public statements negatively impact any prospect of maintaining financing and obtaining new financing.

“One would not, however, expect Kuafu to devalue the property — and put the majority of the Project’s financing at risk — by commencing a public dissolution proceeding [and] refuse to take incremental and obvious steps that would increase the property’s value, or even meet to discuss these steps,” the lawsuit states.

In June 2014, the development team’s entity Bifrost Land LLC entered a loan agreement with UBS Real Estate Securities to borrow about $60.9 million — including $44 million that would be drawn at closing — to purchase the property. In the suit, Siras claims the UBS loan has an initial maturity date of July 9 and that the public comments will make UBS less inclined to extend the loan.

Tom Mohen, a lawyer for Kuafu, responded to the claims with a statement: “We disagree with the allegations and we consider this legal posturing. Larry Hutcher responded to a reporter’s request for comment, so we don’t think there’s any basis for such claims.”

Kuafu CEO Shang Dai told TRD last month that Kuafu would provide “most of the equity” for the project, around $135 million. According to Kuafu’s petition, the tower at 462-470 11th Avenue is slated to have a total sellout of $600 million.

From left: Saif Sumaida, Ashwin Verma, Shang Dai, a rendering of Hudson Rise at 462-470 11th Avenue in Hudson Yards

[chris08876]

Credit: 1) http://www.archilier.com.cn/zh/portf...90%88%E4%BD%93
2) http://kuafuproperties.com/hudson-rise/

[Downburst]

It's a little busy, but I can't think of anything else quite like it in the city. It'll certainly be interesting to look at during and after construction.

[chris08876]

It is kinda busy. Almost like ny's own tetris tower. 56 Leonard is already NY's jenga tower, why not tetris' turn.



At least from the vantage point facing West. Could be a matter of perspective.

[sparkling]

Read Article

[Vertical_Gotham]

[Vertical_Gotham]

Chinese real estate giant is foreclosing on its own Hudson Yards skyscraper project
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-styl...icle-1.2318432

A Chinese private equity firm with plans to build a gleaming 47-story condo and hotel tower on an empty lot near Hudson Yards is now making moves to force the foreclosure of that very same site.

Kuafu Properties, which has been arguing with its partners over finances and negative publicity, has made the unusual move, through an affiliate, of acquiring a $44.4 million loan granted to the project by banking giant UBS and is now filing to foreclose on itself and its partners, citing a loan maturity default, the Daily News has learned.

If successful, Kuafu could force a public auction of the property and then potentially submit its own bid to purchase it for a second time - without its current partners, Blackhouse Development and Siras Development.

In that case, it would have to outbid potential competitors.

Kuafu officially filed to foreclose on the property, at 462-470 11th Ave. and 554 W. 38th St., July 10 in State Supreme Court, according to public documents.

When contacted by the Daily News, Kuafu said it had moved to acquire the loan after learning that UBS had been approached by other investors looking to buy it in a bid to gain control of the property.

"After learning that 'loan to own' investors were attempting to purchase the UBS mortgage loan, an affiliate of Kuafu acquired the loan at par and is now proceeding with a foreclosure process that will be conducted so as to maximize value for all investors," said a spokesman for Kuafu.

He declined to comment further on Kuafu’s plans.

Kuafu and its partners had plans to build a massive, 380,000-square-foot residential and hotel project known as Hudson Rise but the project stalled after the partners began to clash. Kuafu claims that Blackhouse CEO Sean Ludwick spooked the investment community after press reports that he’d allegedly drawn lewd illustrations on murals in his ex-girlfriend’s apartment.

It also claimed that Ludwick had shown questionable financial judgement and that Siras had gone behind its back to ink an exclusive arrangement for brokerage Compass to sell the apartments without its knowledge.

Spokespersons for Blackhouse and Siras didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

[Busy Bee]

Shifty and bizarre. Let's hope they're actually serious about building something here and not just playing some kind of something out of nothing profit shenanigans.

[mrnyc]

yeah, busy, clunky and cheesey architecture here, yet...i kinda like it. it is something very different. and if that is a public restaurant/bar in the open space seen in the renders, then good enough for me because i'd like to see inside and enjoy those views, so by all means build it. hopefully they can get it together and its not kaputski now.

[Vertical_Gotham]

Press Release:

Siras Development Remains At The Forefront Leading The Hudson Rise Project-
Kuafu Properties Agrees To Work Towards Settlement Through Mediation
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...300128845.html



From left: Saif Sumaida, Ashwin Verma, Shang Dai, a rendering of Hudson Rise at 462-470 11th Avenue in Hudson Yards


NEW YORK, Aug. 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Hudson Yards continues as one of the most significant private real estate development sites in New York City's history, and Hudson Rise, a 380,000-square-foot residential and hotel project led by Ashwin Verma and Saif Sumaida of Siras Development, one of the city's leading hospitality and residential development groups, remains poised to be one of the area's signature developments.

Earlier this year the project experienced a temporary setback when the Chinese investor group funding the development, Kuafu Properties, tried to wrest control away from Siras by filing a dissolution petition in New York State Court – after the land had doubled in value in less than a year. But Siras immediately fought back, and a New York Supreme Court Justice dismissed the dissolution petition in its entirety.

Kuafu then responded by taking the drastic step of acquiring the project's loan, claiming it was protecting the project from loan-to-own lenders, only to file a second lawsuit seeking to foreclose on that same loan. But again Siras did not back down, filing claims of its own against Kuafu, alleging breach of fiduciary duty, among others, arising out of Kuafu's efforts to seize complete control of the project.

"This was an old-fashioned squeeze-out play," Ashwin Verma, Managing Partner of Siras, said of Kuafu's unprecedented conduct. "But Siras discovered this opportunity, and we will remain its lead developers. We are now pleased," Verma added, "that Kuafu has agreed to try and resolve this dispute amicably through mediation."

Hudson Rise continues as planned and will be a welcome addition in the changing Hudson Yards neighborhood. According to Mr. Verma, "we are thrilled to remain at the helm of this exciting and unprecedented project."