From left: Hines Interests Chairman Gerald Hines, renderings of 56 Leonard Street, 1045 Sixth Avenue and the MoMA Tower

Already behind the controversial MoMA Tower and a new Bryant Park tower, perpetually under-the-radar real estate firm Hines Interests is undertaking another major project, the New York Observer reported in a lengthy profile, by reviving the stalled 56 Leonard Street condominium project in Tribeca.

The Herzog & de Mueron-designed 57-story condo was first announced by developer Alexico Group a month before Lehman Brothers collapsed, and even sold four of its planned 145 units. But the recession took the plans for the building down with it, and the site currently has a foundation and little else. Typical of the understated firm, Hines refused to divulge much detail other than to say it would become another of Herzog & de Mueron’s “global landmarks.” [more]

From left: 57 Reade, One57, 56 Leonard Street and 1212 Fifth Avenue

Since 2005 an average of 3,800 new condominium units have hit the New York City market each year, but in the first half of 2011 just 278 units hit the market. The New York Post reported that that’s about to change.

According to figures from Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, 833 new condo units will hit the market in the second half of 2011, and over the next three-and-a-half years some 5,250 units will hit the market.

“People are sort of coming out of hibernation,” Town Residential’s Reid Price, a broker who specializes in new developments, told the Post. [more]

From left: A rendering of the Oliver’s rooftop, images of the stalled project

Bank of America filed to foreclose on two loans totaling more than $30
million provided for the development of a rental project dubbed the
Oliver to be constructed by the luxury developer Alexico Group on the
East Side. The lawsuit describes one mortgage from 2007 as the fee acquisition
loan, valued at $28.32 million, and the second as a development rights
acquisition loan from 2008, valued at $2.3 million. Both loans were originally due November 2008, but the maturity date was
extended to May 1, 2009. The loans were not repaid by that time, and
the bank notified the borrowers that the loans were in default, the
suit filed in New York State Supreme Court August 13, says. The loans cover five mid-block lots from 951 to 961 First Avenue,
between 52nd and 53rd streets, although the planned 30-story
development is only on the three northernmost lots totaling 75 feet by
100 feet, court papers and property records show. The other two lots
are occupied by five-story apartment buildings. [more]