Vornado’s Hotel Penn skyscraper wins Stringer’s support

The city’s would-be third-tallest tower won the conditional approval of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer yesterday, sending the proposal to the City Planning Commission with a renewed confidence. The Vornado-built 15 Penn Plaza, which would rise 1,200 feet on the site of the current Hotel Pennsylvania, was handed a resounding “no” by the community board last month, which took issue with the density of the project. Stringer’s recommendations for the skyscraper centered largely on open space and pedestrian flow. “The proposed development represents a unique opportunity to encourage high-density transit-oriented development, strengthen the nation’s largest central business district and improve local an regional mass-transit systems,” he wrote. [NYO]