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  #1  
Old Posted Mar 2, 2011, 2:32 AM
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Smile NEW YORK | 237 West 54th Street | XXX FT | 27 FLOORS

34-Story Gene Kaufman-Designed Hotel Coming to Midtown?

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2011/0...to_midtown.php

Quote:
Post columnist Steve Cuozzo has some fresh intel today on 237 West 54th Street, the vacant five-story building that developer Joseph Moinian had designs on for a hotel. Having a lot on his plate, much of it involving foreclosure, hasn't stopped Moinian from going ahead with those plans. Cuozzo reports the developer has filed plans with the Department of Buildings for a 34-story hotel with a ground-floor restaurant. The architect on the permits? The one and only Gene Kaufman.

But Moinian's representatives say the five-story building currently on the site isn't being demolished, which raises one other possibility: developer mindgames. Going up next door is a 67-floor Marriott Hotel, which would lose some views if Moinian's plan went ahead. So perhaps there's some larger scheming going on. Stay tuned.
http://www.city-data.com/businesses/...w-york-ny.html
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  #2  
Old Posted Mar 2, 2011, 3:34 PM
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And the City of New York collectively said...

Still, its more activity in the City, as we look forward to watching more cranes return to the cityscape.
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NEW YORK is Back!

“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
     
     
  #3  
Old Posted Mar 2, 2011, 9:37 PM
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Yes, the activity is booming but not the actual act of constructing. We'll see.
     
     
  #4  
Old Posted Mar 4, 2011, 2:49 AM
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Moinian files plans for new Midtown hotel
http://ny.therealdeal.com/newyork/ar...st-54th-street

Quote:
Joseph Moinian is barely hanging onto several of his existing properties, but the Iranian-born developer is still gearing up to build in New York. According to the Post, Moinian has filed plans with the Department of Buildings to tear down the vacant, five-story building at 237 West 54th Street and put a 34-story Gene Kaufman-designed hotel in its place -- right next door to a 67-story Marriott Hotel planned by Harry Gross' Broadway Granite Development. Moinian's demolition application has already been approved, though the DOB is still reviewing the hotel plans. A representative for Moinian said the site is in "very preliminary" stages, and that the only work being done there so far is cleanup. Moinian had been seeking a joint venture partner for the site last year with the help of Marcus & Millichap, but the brokerage is no longer working on the project. Meanwhile, as The Real Deal reported yesterday, Moinian is facing a foreclosure lawsuit at rental apartment tower 100 John Street, where he defaulted on his $93 million mortgage.
     
     
  #5  
Old Posted Mar 4, 2011, 2:51 AM
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The story I just posted says the building currently on site is being demolished while the first story I post says it isn't. I guess we do not know yet.
     
     
  #6  
Old Posted Mar 4, 2011, 3:03 AM
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If Gross acquires the air rights from this site for his hotel next door, we could get a 900 footer!
     
     
  #7  
Old Posted Mar 4, 2011, 12:45 PM
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^^^I wouldn't mind if Gross's tower got a design upgrade too. As it is it's a bit homely.
     
     
  #8  
Old Posted Mar 4, 2011, 2:03 PM
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I agree. Presumably, if there were air rights to build a 900 foot tower, something more high-end would be built on this site.
     
     
  #9  
Old Posted Mar 31, 2011, 4:32 PM
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That's a very old photo. Any Kaufman-design to be seen?

Boy, that's a very old photo! That FedEx/Kinkos has been gone for years, and the buildings to the east are all gone, with Harry Gross busy putting in the foundation to his Marriott project.

Kaufman's website does not include any artwork indicating what the hotel will look like, which gives some credence to the idea that Moinian really does not plan to build a hotel there, that something else is going on. Has anyone seen an actual design? The 1911 building there now actually looks pretty good.
     
     
  #10  
Old Posted Apr 3, 2011, 5:14 PM
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^^^ I just used the photo to show what the site currently looks like.
     
     
  #11  
Old Posted May 27, 2011, 3:47 PM
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Demolition has begun...

New boarding has gone up around the building, and there is a posted demolition notice dated May 25. Demolition has begun.

Is there any money to build? I doubt it.
     
     
  #12  
Old Posted Jun 3, 2011, 3:48 PM
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A rat

There is now a giant inflatable RAT is front of the building, telling the world that the demolition job underway is a non-union one. No surprise, considering who owns the building.
     
     
  #13  
Old Posted Jun 10, 2011, 7:43 PM
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An update from Steve Cuozzo

Steve Cuozzo had an update in the New York Post this past Tuesday, which indicates something is going on between Harry Gross and Joseph Moinian:

An inflatable giant rat has popped up in front of 237 W. 54th St., the vacant 5-story building Joseph Moinian has begun demolishing in preparation for a 34-story hotel project.
Members of Local 79 wheeled in the roving rodent to protest Moinian's use of a non-union crew to perform the takedown, which received Buildings Dept. approval last month. The work set off a buzz that it could endanger union workmen installing the foundation at the next-door site, at the corner of Broadway, where Harry Gross's Broadway Granite Development is building a 67-story Marriott Hotel.
"The men on Harry's site wanted the city to not allow Moinian to demolish his eastern wall until the Marriott reached the height that Moinian's project is supposed to reach," a source claimed.
However, the DOB says it has no record of Gross filing any complaint. We first reported Moinian's plan in March, when he filed plans for the 34-story hotel with the DOB, which has yet to approve them. Moinian declined to comment through a rep. Reps for Gross didn't get back to us.scuozzo@nypost.com


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/busines...#ixzz1Ou2u0VdA
     
     
  #14  
Old Posted Jul 8, 2011, 5:01 PM
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Moinian demolishes, Gross builds

Here's the latest this week from Steve Cuozzo in the Post:

Moinian in crosshairs
By STEVE CUOZZO
Last Updated: 1:42 AM, July 5, 2011
Posted: 12:38 AM, July 5, 2011
Poor Joseph Moinian. In parts of Midtown you might think he's Public Enemy No. 1.

A small fire on Thursday at 237 W. 54th St., a 5-story building he's demolishing, drew a dozen FDNY engines and emergency trucks to the block, snarling traffic and adding to jitters at a next-door address where tenants fear for their safety.

"There was a lot of smoke and we're all nervous wrecks," said a resident at 243 W. 54th who didn't wish to be named.

The firefighters followed another recent visitor to the demo site: a giant inflatable rat set up outside no. 237 by Local 73 to protest Moinian's using a non-union crew. Moinian -- who controls 20 million square feet of property in the US valued at $10 billion -- is razing no. 237 to put up a 34-story hotel.

Then, on Friday, posters popped up outside the Moinian-owned 535 Fifth Ave. accusing Moinian of owing money to contractors at the W Downtown Hotel, which he opened last year on Liberty Street. A rep for Moinian declined to comment on the fire or the posters.

Apartments tenants can be jumpy when they fear a threat to their rent-controlled or rent- stabilized status, but you can't blame the 20-odd residents of 243 W. 54th from being on edge.

The four-story building, also owned by Moinian, is sandwiched between two large ongoing projects. In a few months, Boston Properties will start construction of 250 W. 55th St., a 1 million square- foot office tower that will abut no. 243's western wall. Boston reinforced the wall a few years ago after it sued Moinian for initially not giving it access to no. 243 to perform the work.

But no. 243's tenants are more worried for the moment about the demolition of no. 237 to the east. Melanie, a tenant who didn't want her last name used, said, "It feels like earthquakes and bombs going off next door." Another tenant, Joanne Lockman, e- mailed us, "Waking up to a swaying building is scary on a good day."

Some tenants suspect that Moinian, rather than actually build a hotel, filed his plan in order to induce the owners of an even larger hotel project at the corner of Broadway and 54th Street to buy him out first. The 67-story Marriott, to be completed by late 2013, is being built by Harry Gross's Broadway Granite Development.

Tenants at no. 243 say Moinian's project would rise to half the Marriott's height and block views from it. (Gross didn't return our call.) The tenants also note that Moinian's hotel plan has yet to be approved by the Buildings Dept.

Even more darkly, some tenants fear that were an accident to occur during demolition of no. 237, it could force them to leave their building for good -- theoretically paving the way for Moinian to sell the two adjacent addresses for much more than the sum of what they're fetch individually.

Melanie, the tenant, said, "I feel there's a risk of losing the apartment. If there's structural damage to our building, which is 100 years old, then we'd have to evacuate." Moinian has demolition permits and there are no current violations.

Moinian has fought his way out of a debt squeeze at several Manhattan properties recently including 3 Columbus Circle, where SL Green rescued him from being pushed out by Related Cos.

Last week's fire was quickly contained, said FDNY spokesman Paul Iannizzotto. "It was on the first floor and brought under control within 20 minutes," he said, adding that the fire was not deemed to be suspicious.

Meanwhile, at least two Moini an-bashing posters were taped to planters outside 535 Fifth Ave. at East 45th Street.

Under the heading, "123 Washington/W New York Downtown," a comic-strip balloon over a picture of George Washington read, "I cannot tell a lie -- Joe Moinian does not pay his bills. The Moinian Group refuses to pay its contractors for work already completed."

It was unclear who the aggrieved contractors were. The posters were removed within hours.

*

Doral Financial Corp. has more than doubled its space at Charles S. Cohen's 623 Fifth Ave., taking the entire 14,486 square-foot 19th floor for a total of nearly 30,000 feet. Asking rents in the tower overlooking Saks Fifth Avenue run from the $80s to over $100 a square foot. scuozzo@nypost.com



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/busines...#ixzz1RXA691Wg
     
     
  #15  
Old Posted Jul 28, 2011, 6:35 PM
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According to Steve Cuozzo in the NY Post, it's going to become a busier block than it already is:

The W. 50s are ready to rumble
By STEVE COUZZO
Last Updated: 11:34 PM, July 25, 2011
Posted: 11:19 PM, July 25, 2011
TWO sets of Buildings Dept. approvals issued yesterday paved the way for full-bore work on two big projects on the block bounded by Broadway and Eighth Avenue and West 54th and 55th Streets -- soon to be Manhattan's noisiest construction site except for the World Trade Center.

At 250 W. 55th St., Boston Properties' 900,000 square-foot office tower is set to rise after a two-year hiatus. The DOB approved plans for a "heavy-duty," 712-foot-long sidewalk shed to wrap the L-shaped site on three sides.

Law firm Morrison Foerster recently signed on for 200,000 square feet, reviving the project that Boston froze at the foundation two years ago.

Also yesterday, the DOB green-lighted plans it had initially rejected for Joseph Moinian's as yet unflagged, 34-story hotel at 237 W. 54th, to rise on the site of a small building he's nearly finished demolishing.

No rendering of the Gene Kaufman-designed hotel was available. That's led to speculation that, rather than build, Moinian would prefer to be bought out by Harry Gross, who's putting up the block's third giant project -- a 60-story Marriott hotel next door at 1717 Broadway.

Moinian's project would likely block views from the Marriott's lower floors. Moinian's rep blamed the lack of an image on a confidentiality agreement with an unidentified partner.

Meanwhile, the 54th Street block will be closed to traffic this weekend and next, to set up a crane for work on the new Marriott.


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/busines...#ixzz1TQL3UmwM

Construction permit #120583145 identifies it as 27 floors, so ambitions appear to be scaled back. But what's this nonsense about "an unidentified partner" and a "confidentiality agreement" on the design? For one thing, once a construction permit is issued, the design elements must be available to the public. And why would the identity of a partner be hidden? (Cue Twilight Zone music).
     
     
  #16  
Old Posted Aug 11, 2011, 5:11 PM
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Moinian's Kaufman next door to the new Marriott is a scary thought...

Here's the latest from Steve Cuozzo is the NY Post this week:

In the ongoing colorful saga of Joseph Moinian's hotel project at 237 W. 54th St., he's scaled down his plan from 34 stories to 27, according to filings with the Buildings Dept.
So modest a project wouldn't ordinarily merit much attention. But this one occupies a crucial location on a block where two enormous new buildings are already under way: Harry Gross' 67-story Marriott hotel at the corner of Broadway and West 54th Street, and Boston Properties' 900,000 square foot office tower at 250 W. 55th St.
Moinian demolished the small vacant building at 237 W. 54th to make room for his as yet unnamed hotel. That made nervous wrecks out of residents of 245 W. 54th St., the four-story rental apartment building next door that's also owned by Moinian.
The tiny structure they call home is sandwiched between Moinian's hotel site to the east -- itself next to the Marriott under full-bore construction -- and Boston's giant L-shaped tower to the north and west, soon to start above-ground work.
Tenants fear that an accident at Moinian's or Boston's work site could render their 100-year-old building uninhabitable. A recent small fire at 237 as it was being razed fueled their concerns.
This week, paranoia struck deeper when their superintendent moved out and the soup restaurant on the ground floor closed. Moinian declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement with an unidentified partner.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/busines...#ixzz1UjxHMs76

Since both hotels are going to have their entrances next to each other on West 54th Street (and right across from the Britannia) it will be interesting what Kaufman comes up with.
     
     
  #17  
Old Posted Oct 18, 2011, 12:22 PM
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Architecture Film Festival for bad builders

Maybe if Moinian attended this film festival in the Tribeca area of New York, he would hire better architects:


The Architecture & Design Film Festival (www.adfilmfest.com), now in its third year, returns to Tribeca Cinemas (54 Varick Street), October 19-23, 2011 with a fascinating lineup of more than 30 films from 12 countries. The festival celebrates the creative spirit that drives architecture and design.
     
     
  #18  
Old Posted Oct 21, 2011, 8:54 PM
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The following item appeared in Steve Cuozzo's column in the New York post on October 11:

As readers of this column know well, two giant projects are underway on West 54th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue -- Boston Properties’ office tower and a 70-story Marriott Courtyard Hotel.

But mystery lingers over 237 W. 54th St., a vacant lot between the tiny apartment building at 243 W. 54th and the Marriott site. Owner Joseph Moinian, who recently demolished a small building there, filed plans this year for a new hotel of his own of either 27 or 34 stories, depending on which Buildings Dept. entry you believe.

Now, Moinian tells us in a statement that an entity owned by himself and partners “has conveyed its interests in the land at 237 W. 54th into a new joint venture. The new, controlling members of the venture have provided financing and their expertise in the development and operation of hotels.

“For the time being, for competitive reasons, they wish to remain anonymous. Moinian remains as a minority, non-controlling member of the JV building the hotel and has no interest in the developer of the property.” So far, there’s no public record of a change of title.

Today, October 21, they appear to have started digging on the lot, but no plans have appeared on the Department of Buildings website. Nor any identity of the so-called partner.
     
     
  #19  
Old Posted Oct 29, 2011, 3:15 PM
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CB5 meeting regarding the site

On Wednesday, November 2, at 6:00 p.m., in the Flatiron BlD at 27 West 24 St., there will be an opportunity to tell them what you think of Gene Kaufman as an architect, and Joseph Moinian as a builder. Find it at www.cb5.org:


LAND USE & ZONING

Kate McDonough, Chair
Giuseppe Scalia, Vice Chair

Agenda:

237 West 54 Owner, L.L.C., - seeking a certification to allow the transfer of 24,100 square feet of unused development rights from the Booth Theater to the property located at 237 West 54th Street to facilitate the development of an approximately 142,300 sf transient hotel (with a ground floor restaurant) on the receiving site.
West 40th LLC requesting a three (3) year renewal of the previously approved special permit to facilitate the development of a 32-story mixed use building on property at 14-20 West 40th Street.
Department of City Planning proposed city-wide text amendment to the Zoning Resolution to streamline and improve the zoning regulations governing Environmental ("E") designations
     
     
  #20  
Old Posted Nov 9, 2011, 6:33 PM
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Here's a link to what the hotel will presumably look like

Jill Colvin of DNAinfo.com posted an article on their site of what the new hotel is supposedly going to look like. I don't buy it. It doesn't look so much like a bad design, as a bogus one:

http://www.dnainfo.com/20111107/midt...tel-renderings

Let's hope the full CB5 meeting this week turns it down.
     
     
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