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

[NYguy]

I wish we had a better idea of what they are planning to build here. There will be big buildings, but the plan has changed enough that it's no longer clear what to expect other than large buildings and a plaza.

[aquablue]

Originally Posted by NYguy

I wish we had a better idea of what they are planning to build here. There will be big buildings, but the plan has changed enough that it's no longer clear what to expect other than large buildings and a plaza.

I hope they don't build those fat towers. Just an ugly mass of boxy towers without exceptional height.

[NYguy]

^ I bet they will be challenging Related for something significant. Brookfield plays "second fiddle" to the WTC downtown, I'm sure they expect this complex to be just as prominent as Related's railyard development.

[Guiltyspark]

Originally Posted by NYguy

^ I bet they will be challenging Related for something significant. Brookfield plays "second fiddle" to the WTC downtown, I'm sure they expect this complex to be just as prominent as Related's railyard development.

Then they are going to have to do something spectacular, and so far I have seen or heard nothing that would make me expect that.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Guiltyspark

Then they are going to have to do something spectacular, and so far I have seen or heard nothing that would make me expect that.

We haven't really seen anything yet for this site. Related's plans for the railyards are relatively new, and we haven't seen anything of Brookfield's plans. Remember, Related's plans are only as spectacular in renderings because of the absence of developments that will surround it. It will still be impressive, but less so when you factor in everything that will surround it. It won't be the singular focal point you see in the renderings.

[Eidolon]

Brookfield Office Properties starts long-awaited Manhattan West deck
By STEVE CUOZZO
January 14, 2013

After six years of promises, Brookfield Office Properties has finally started to build a deck over the exposed Amtrak rail yard for its planned Manhattan West development project.

The platform is a long-awaited breakthrough in Mayor Bloomberg’s dream to create a vast new Hudson Yards District in the once-forlorn far West 30s that will be home to major companies, residents and a wealth of public amenities.

It’s also crucial to publicly traded Brookfield’s plan for a $4.5 billion, five million-square-foot project on five acres anchored by two tall office towers and an apartment building.

The Manhattan West project, between Ninth and Dyers avenues and W. 31st and 33rd streets, will include a public plaza designed by High Line Park creator James Corner Field Operations.

The deck was first announced in 2006 but held up by caution over the real-estate market, changes to the original mix of towers and delays in negotiating agreements with Amtrak over use of the rail lines through the yard.

Manhattan West spans the irregular rectangle bounded by Ninth and Dyer avenues and West 31st and 33rd streets. Most but not all of it consists of the exposed train yard 65 feet below street level.

Brookfield CEO Dennis Friedrich told The Post, “Excavation started a while ago. This is the formal launch of the next phase.”

Giant machines will soon appear on-site to erect a street-level surface comprised of 16 “bridges.” The deck will occupy 50 percent of the entire site.

Friedrich said the platform will be finished in late 2014 and the site will be ready to receive tenants by 2016.

He estimated Brookfield’s land and platform costs at a total $700 million. The deck is to be financed with a five-year, $340 million construction loan from a bank consortium including HSBC, Bank of New York Mellon and four others.

Brookfield will invest more than $300 million of its own capital with no public subsidies.

The details are to be announced tomorrow at a photo-op. Bloomberg, Friedrich, Brookfield co-Chairman John Zuccotti, Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye and Hudson Yards Development Corp. President Ann Weisbrod are expected to attend.

“Our initial plan was for all offices,” Friedrich said. “But we got excited about residential because the market was so heated. So in our current plan, we replaced what was the third office building with apartments.”

Manhattan West lies just east of Related Cos.’ much larger Hudson Yards project. Each giant enterprise can now claim its own bragging rights.

While Related is raising its first tower for Coach Inc. without first building a deck over its own rail yard site, Brookfield is plunging ahead with a deck before it puts up a building — which it won’t do until it lands a tenant. Cushman & Wakefield has been tapped to find one or more.

Manhattan West was originally to have three office buildings. Now, it will have two of them at the yards’ Ninth Avenue corners of West 31st and 33rd Streets, and a high-rise apartment tower between them and Dyer Avenue.

Brookfield also owns 450 W. 33rd St., the massive, million-square-foot office address on 10th Avenue, which stands between the Brookfield- and Related-controlled portions of the sunken rail yard.

It's finally coming! This will be a great year for New York and will probably be the biggest of the current building boom before Midtown East gets moving.

[NYguy]

^ LOL, same thinking...so more highlights...


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

Brookfield Office Properties starts long-awaited Manhattan West deck





By STEVE CUOZZO
January 14, 2013

Giant machines will soon appear on-site to erect a street-level surface comprised of 16 “bridges.” The deck will occupy 50 percent of the entire site. Friedrich said the platform will be finished in late 2014 and the site will be ready to receive tenants by 2016. He estimated Brookfield’s land and platform costs at a total $700 million. The deck is to be financed with a five-year, $340 million construction loan from a bank consortium including HSBC, Bank of New York Mellon and four others.

“Our initial plan was for all offices,” Friedrich said. “But we got excited about residential because the market was so heated. So in our current plan, we replaced what was the third office building with apartments.”

Manhattan West was originally to have three office buildings. Now, it will have two of them at the yards’ Ninth Avenue corners of West 31st and 33rd Streets, and a high-rise apartment tower between them and Dyer Avenue.

Despite a popular myth that the deck will support the towers, they will actually rise from bedrock at the sites’ corners and in effect be thrust through the platform. But the deck is needed to create a welcoming location for commercial and residential users.

[Eidolon]

Originally Posted by NYguy

^ LOL, same thinking...so more highlights...


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

Brookfield Office Properties starts long-awaited Manhattan West deck





By STEVE CUOZZO
January 14, 2013

I didn't see your post until now and I edited those same highlights.
Anyway, I'm so excited for this year and it's definitely off to a good start with this, Torre Verre and 3WTC starting up really soon and 225 W57th and the HY North Tower starting a little later.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Eidolon

I'm so excited for this year and it's definitely off to a good start with this, Torre Verre and 3WTC starting up really soon and 225 W57th and the HY North Tower starting a little later.

Yes it is going to be very exciting.

Friedrich said the platform will be finished in late 2014 and the site will be ready to receive tenants by 2016. He estimated Brookfield’s land and platform costs at a total $700 million. The deck is to be financed with a five-year, $340 million construction loan from a bank consortium including HSBC, Bank of New York Mellon and four others.

That 2016 target date puts the first tenants there right on the heels of the Coach Tower, and before Related's north tower opening. People may see that area as one huge development, and that's not even counting the potential rist of One Hudson Yards. This is the beginning of a very significant change for Manhattan's skyline, as the west side has never been considered a prime office district. Now, with the opening of the 7 line extension, and offices among other things, it will slowly sink into the minds of New Yorkers and visitors alike as a vital part of the City.

[Eidolon]

Originally Posted by NYguy

That 2016 target date puts the first tenants there right on the heels of the Coach Tower, and before Related's north tower opening. This is the beginning of a very significant change for Manhattan's skyline, as the west side has never been considered a prime office district. Now, with the opening of the 7 line extension, and offices among other things, it will slowly sink into the minds of New Yorkers and visitors alike as a vital part of the City.

A tourist coming to see this area in 2020 might not even realize that the Far West of Manhattan was a desolate industrial area and would probably think that it was developed at about the same time as the rest of Midtown.

Originally Posted by NYguy

People may see that area as one huge development, and that's not even counting the potential rist of One Hudson Yards.

True, the Far West will be busy with construction well into the next decade with all the currently known projects. When the Javits Center, Coach's current HQ, 450 W33rd, the drive-through McDonald's and lots of other sites inevitably get redeveloped it's safe to say that there will be plenty of action here well into the 30s.

[Crawford]

So if the office towers are collectively around 4 million square feet, that means the residential tower (which will be built first) has about 1.4 million square feet.

Considering that portion of the site is quite small, it could be an extremely tall residential tower.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Considering that portion of the site is quite small, it could be an extremely tall residential tower.

Yeah, they should have a more solid idea about what's planned for that.


http://www.nypost.com/p/news/busines...fi9JenNPxjcr9K

It’s the roaring 30s: Projects bring new life to far West Side

By STEVE CUOZZO
January 15, 2013

The start of major construction by Brookfield Office Properties on the deck over an Amtrak rail yard is a milestone — and not just for Manhattan West, Brookfield’s $4.5 billion development between Ninth and Dyer avenues. The platform launch — first reported on nypost.com yesterday and to be formally announced today — is a crucial breakthrough for the entire Hudson Yards District. It will create a new surface appealing to tenants and residents at what’s planned as a $4.5 billion complex anchored by three towers — two for offices and one for apartments — and an ambitious, 1.5-acre public plaza designed by High Line Park designer James Corner Field Operations.

Brookfield won’t build the office towers until it lands a tenant, a task for which it has tapped Cushman & Wakefield’s Bruce Mosler and Josh Kuriloff. But the deck is just as meaningful. It will finally eliminate a portion of the rail yard eyesore that both Brookfield and Related Cos., which control the Hudson Yards site to the west, have pledged for years to do.

Related’s strategy is the opposite of Brookfield’s. Where Brookfield is not waiting for a tenant to build a platform, Related is building its first tower before it starts work on a deck. Stephen M. Ross’s company has started on a 1.7 million square-foot tower that will be home to Coach and probably to L’Oréal as well, but hasn’t said when it will start the deck.

But in different ways, Hudson Yards and Manhattan West are now both seriously under way. The notion that the once forlorn far West 30s would one day be home to major companies, residents and a wealth of public amenities no longer seems far-fetched. Contrary to myth, neither Brookfield’s deck nor the ones Related will install between 10th and 12th avenues will support the buildings, which will have bedrock foundations and rise through gaps in the platforms.

[NYguy]

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP4e40...2d0e272fa.html

NYC officials kick off new Manhattan development

January 15, 2013

New York City officials have officially kicked off a new 5 million-square-foot development project that will be built on a platform over railroad tracks in Manhattan.

The Manhattan West project west of Penn Station will include two office towers and a residential building.

The $4.5 billion project will require a 120,000-square-foot platform over the tracks that lead to the train station.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined officials from developer Brookfield Office Properties on Tuesday to announce that construction has begun.

Brookfield Office Properties CEO Dennis Friedrich said the project will serve as a much-needed expansion of Manhattan's central business district. He said the buildings will open in 2016.

Bloomberg said the development will create jobs the city needs.

nycmayorsoffice

[NYguy]

http://www.auroraadvocate.com/ap%20f...on-square-foot

Brookfield Kicks Off Construction of $4.5 Billion, Five-Million-Square-Foot


January 15, 2013

Brookfield Office Properties Inc. today announced an exciting step forward in its New York property portfolio by commencing construction of the platform for the Manhattan West development site on Ninth Avenue between West 31st and West 33rd Streets and Dyer Avenue at a ceremony at the site with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. Construction is expected to be completed in 2014, positioning the project to receive tenants in 2016.

"With today's groundbreaking, we're taking a major step forward in the transformation and rebirth of the Far West Side of Manhattan," said Mayor Bloomberg. "The state-of-the-art Manhattan West development will include two new office towers, a residential tower, new shops and restaurants, and an acre and a half of new outdoor space -- making it a vital piece of the mixed-use community we've envisioned for the Hudson Yards area, and which is now starting to take shape."

The building of the platform will generate more than 600 construction jobs, in addition to generating $52.7 million in employee compensation and $4.7 million in tax revenue for New York City, New York State. Agreements were completed in September 2012 with Amtrak and the MTA/Long Island Rail Road, who hold easements through the Brookfield-owned land, as well as with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Excavation and rock drilling have been underway for the past three months.

Brookfield is currently in negotiations with a number of potential tenants in the technology, media, entertainment, professional and financial services sectors; office tower construction will begin when an anchor tenant is secured. Cushman & Wakefield is the leasing agent for Manhattan West.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is the master plan architect, working in partnership with SLCE Architects on the residential portion.

The grand outdoor public space at Manhattan West, designed by High Line firm Field Operations, will be home to a robust arts and events program, similar to the award-winning program at Brookfield Place New York/the World Financial Center.

http://www.marketwire.com/press-rele...po-1746070.htm




http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/2013...craper-project

Work Starts on $4.5 B West Side Skyscraper Project



Mayor Michael Bloomberg signs the concrete slab that will make up part of the platform over the rail yards.


January 15, 2013
By Mathew Katz

"We are literally today building a bridge," said John Zuccotti, Brookfield's chairman.

"On that bridge we will build the tallest building, a retail center, and residential housing as well."

The $680 million platform will be made up of a series of 16 bridges over the active rail yard and is expected to be completed in 2014. If all goes well, the project should be able to take on tenants in 2016.

The final Manhattan West development will consist of the pair of two million square foot office towers, the residential tower and 1.5 acres of public space.

"It is not only going to be a remarkable piece of engineering, it also takes us a big step forward in the transformation and rebirth of the far West Side of Manhattan," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg after he signed the first massive chunk of concrete that will make up the platform.

He added that a similar platform will be built soon just a few blocks away, as part of the Related Companies' Hudson Yards development over the West Side Rail Yards.

"Every part of the city is growing, but the West Side is doing it from bottom to top," he said.

Two images of the site from Gothamist...

http://galleries.gothamistllc.com/as...ery/manhw8.jpg


http://galleries.gothamistllc.com/as...ery/manhw7.jpg

[NYC4Life]

Exciting! How tall will the residential tower be?

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by NYC4Life

Exciting! How tall will the residential tower be?

Everything is still in development.


http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bro...ent-2013-01-15

Innovative Platform Above Rail Yard to Be Completed in 2014 and Launched With $340 Million Financing in Place Mixed-Use Development of Three Iconic Towers, Large Open Spaces, Quality Shops and Restaurants

"Manhattan West will serve as the bridge between Chelsea and the Midtown central business district, providing a pedestrian-friendly way to get from Penn Station to the High Line and to the Hudson River," added Dennis Friedrich, CEO of Brookfield Office Properties. "The open space will be a recreated grand 32nd Street, 100 feet wide, leading from Ninth Avenue to Dyer Avenue then south toward the spur of the High Line. It will be an amenity for the neighborhood -- and for the city,"

[JayPro]

If they're now saying three towers (with the ubiquitous adjective "iconic" just chucked in there to keep the render fanatics' appetite whetted), would it be fair of me to suggest that the stubby twin pic shown above is no longer relevant?

[babybackribs2314]

It may or may not be. They are being quite vague, and the obligatory 'iconic' obviously does not describe the towers in the rendering (the adjective for those towers would be BANAL). I think the design will change (or already has) but I could be wrong. I'd certainly be extremely surprised if they are completed by 2016, even with the announcement. I think 2020+ is much more likely.

[NYguy]

^ It all depends on what and how many tenants sign on for the space. The office towers are 2 msf each. They could be as close as Related in signing tenants for the towers.

Originally Posted by JayPro

If they're now saying three towers (with the ubiquitous adjective "iconic" just chucked in there to keep the render fanatics' appetite whetted), would it be fair of me to suggest that the stubby twin pic shown above is no longer relevant?

It's a placeholder of the way the development is planned to rise, but hasn't even been updated to include the residential tower. Both office towers would be taller than the original 935 ft north tower.

[aquablue]

Originally Posted by NYguy

^ It all depends on what and how many tenants sign on for the space. The office towers are 2 msf each. They could be as close as Related in signing tenants for the towers.




It's a placeholder of the way the development is planned to rise, but hasn't even been updated to include the residential tower. Both office towers would be taller than the original 935 ft north tower.

How much more expensive would it be to build 1 500m tower and 1 short tower compared to two 300m towers? I hope they don't go with twins.