NEW YORK | The Bryant (16 West 40th Street) | 361 FT | 33 FLOORS

[NYguy]

This one is coming back, though likely with a new design...


http://www.nypost.com/p/news/busines...FCExDgynWTx6nK

Skating for deal at Bryant Park


By LOIS WEISS
March 7, 2013

Ziel Feldman has brought in a new investor and still intends to develop a condo-hotel on his prime site opposite Bryant Park.

Feldman’s joint venture for 12-20 W. 40th St. sold the site for $83 million, but the developer will remain in the deal with the new partnership, The Post has learned.

He recently invested with Related Cos., CIM Group and Vornado Realty Trust on other projects. Related and CIM said they aren’t partners on this one.

Feldman, Acro Real Estate and the Taiber family initially gained control of the stalled site by buying the debt and then cutting a deal with the owners for about $50 million.

Globes, an Israel-based website, reported the transaction as a “sale.”

Laurie Golub, general counsel with Feldman’s company, HFZ Capital, told The Post the developer is still in the deal.

“HFZ’s plan is to develop it as a mixed-use hotel and residential in a dynamite location,” Golub said.

She did not believe an earlier design by Morris Adjmi for the prior developer would be resurrected but approvals are in place for a 32-story project of 186,940 square feet.

It could not be learned which of the two other investors sold their stake or which company is the new partner.

[NYguy]

The old proposal...


http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/cpc/080042.pdf

The proposed development would be a 357 foot tall, 32 story building with approximately 186,940 square feet of new floor area. The first floor would contain entrances for the hotel and retail space, as well as the residential lobby, floors 2 through 16 would be hotel use, and floors 17 through 32 would be residential floors. The development would consist of approximately 4,500 square feet of floor area for the retail/restaurant space on the ground floor, 95,000 square feet of floor area for the hotel, and 87,000 square feet of floor area for the residential portion of the building, with approximately 32 as-of right accessory parking spaces below-grade.

http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showth...t=11274&page=2

[scalziand]

Hope the new design, if it does indeed change, still preserves the gaps between the adjacent towers.

[NYguy]

Something thinner, with about 50% more height would be cool.

[Hypothalamus]

New York YIMBY:

Permits Filed: 20 West 40th Street
BY: NIKOLAI FEDAK ON JANUARY 29TH 2014 AT 11:30 AM


12-20 West 40th Street -- image via Google Maps

New building permits have been filed for 12-20 West 40th Street, which had originally been proposed prior to the recession (old rendering at link, via Curbed). Between the old and new versions, the plans have seen a height increase, and the project’s latest iteration will rise 32 floors and 361 feet. Stonehill & Taylor is listed as the architect — a shift from Morris Adjmi — and HFZ Capital is part of a larger development group.

Besides the additional height, the scope of 20 West 40th Street has also increased, and evidently the project will be mixed-use, with a hotel and residences. The latest permits seem to have an error, given the previous proposal’s scope was only 186,000 square feet; the newest documents indicate the site will span over 800,000 square feet.

The 186,000 square foot figure is much more likely, though the number of planned rooms and residences has also increased with the new filings, from 204 to 274. The hotel will span the first fourteen floors, and contain 213 rooms; 61 residences will occupy the upper levels, with only two units on each of the top four floors. The Schedule A has the full details.

As the site is currently a parking lot, the new building will benefit the block. Stonehill & Taylor’s pedigree of Manhattan projects also supports the notion that 20 West 40th Street will be visually appealing; its location across the street from Bryant Park and the New York Public Library also warrants something decently high-end.

[scalziand]

That permit certainly contradicts itself; at one spot it gives 200k sf as the size, which seems reasonable for a 32 floor structure, but further down it gives the mysterious 800k figure. Who knows.

[Submariner]

32 floors seems a bit...short.

[BuildCTPlace]

Does the ability to see ESB from BP depend on whether a tall building is built there?

[scalziand]

Nope, this lot is across the street from the NYPL, and doesn't face the park at all.

[NYguy]

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/02/...nt-park-tower/

HFZ files plans for long-delayed Bryant Park tower
20 percent of project financing from EB-5 program: industry source


February 04, 2014
By Adam Pincus

Ziel Feldman’s HFZ Capital Group filed plans last week for a Bryant Park mixed-use project where another developer once planned to build the city’s largest green hotel. HFZ, one of the most active developers in Manhattan, filed the new plans for 20 West 40th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, on Jan. 27, city Department of Buildings records show.

HFZ, along with several partners, purchased the vacant lot out of foreclosure in 2010 for about $46 million, and then last year some of those partners sold their stakes for $83 million. HFZ remained as a partial owner and as the developer. Currently, the site is a parking lot. But the new plans call for a 32-story, 361-foot-tall tower with at total of 274 condominium and hotel units, city records show. HFZ did not respond to a request for comment.

At the top of the newly-proposed tower, there will be two residential condo units each on floors 29 through 32; three each on floors 24 through 28; four each on floors 17 through 23; and five each on floors 15 and 16, for a total of 61 condo units. The hotel will have 215 units on floors two through 14. (The plans, as filed with the DOB, have a discrepancy between the 274 total units listed on one portion of the application, and an accounting per floor on a document called a Schedule A, which yields a total of 276 units.)

The financing for the project included a large amount of funds from foreign investors seeking permanent residency through a minimum investment of $500,000 in a development project through the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services’ EB-5 program.

HFZ received $52.5 million of the total project cost of $252.8 million through the EB-5 program. About $143 million of the remaining funding will come from bank financing, while developers will put in $57.4 million in equity, according to a Florida company called the US Immigration Fund.

Earlier plans for the site laid during the boom years never materialized.

Starwood Capital Group announced in 2007 that it intended to open a “1” Hotel in the 31-story LEED-certified hotel and condo tower planned for the site, designed by the architect Morris Adjmi. But that project collapsed and the property owner, an affiliate of Ascent Real Estate Advisors, sold the site to Feldman’s group after its lender Petra Capital Mortgage started foreclosure proceedings.

[chris08876]

Revealed: 20 West 40th Street, 32-Story Mixed-Use Tower on Bryant Park

Last month, a rather unhelpful rendering went up on a construction site on Bryant Park’s southern edge, for a 32-story, 361-foot hotel and condo tower. Developed by Ziel Friedman’s HFZ Capital in combination with some mystery investors, the building broke ground this summer and will soon look out over the New York Public Library’s main branch.

And now, YIMBY has what we believe is the first (real) look at the 200,000-square foot structure. The provenance of the renderings is unclear, but the shape of the building depicted matches 20 West 40th Street’s zoning diagram. Its texture also bears some resemblance to the basic drawing that was posted on the construction fence.

Stonehill & Taylor filed for the permit, and the design is restrained but handsome, with a gridded glassy exterior that compliments and contrasts with the surrounding array of ornate prewar buildings. The project’s crown consists of screens that rise above the highest occupied floor, reminiscent of the New York Times Building across town. And in terms of visual impact, 20 West 40th Street will add some modernist heft to the southeastern corner of the park, joining the new skyscrapers on the Sixth Avenue side.

But unlike 7 Bryant Park and the Bank of America Tower, 20 West 40th will not have any office space. The developers are instead choosing to take advantage of some of the site’s residential zoning allotment, and prop it up on a larger hotel base.

[...]

================================
http://www.yimbynews.com/2014/10/rev...yant-park.html

[Submariner]

Not bad I guess. It really comes down to the quality of the facade.

It's good to see the Bryant park area getting so much development - BofA, 7 Bryant Park, The re-surfaced MetLife building and now this.

[NYguy]

It's not bad, and something had to go there.

[chris08876]

Yea its okay for a filler. Although given such a location I think the design could of been a little better, but eh, filler is a filler.

[photoLith]

Thats really short for that location, oh well, better than an empty lot I guess.

[PeterQM]

Another updated render.

Upcoming Condo-Hotel Overlooking Bryant Park Unveils New Dapper Look

-From 6sqft.com by Ondel Hylton: November 7, 2014



"An updated rendering of a ground-up, mixed-use tower along the south side of Bryant Park has been revealed on HFZ Capital Group’s website. The storied site at 20 West 40th Street was acquired by HFZ after Fortieth St. Partners defaulted on a $44 million loan back in 2010."

To read more, click here

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by photoLith

Thats really short for that location, oh well, better than an empty lot I guess.

Blame NIMBYs and city bureaucracy. This was subject to a bunch of city approvals because it's adjacent to a landmarked lot.

[mistermetAJ]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Blame NIMBYs and city bureaucracy. This was subject to a bunch of city approvals because it's adjacent to a landmarked lot.

Every rendering has been bad, but at least they settled on the least offensive design...its generic, bland, and alreasy outdated, but it looks somewhat contextual.

[Submariner]

What decade am I in? Is it 1974?

[Submariner]

November 11: