Renderings of the 1 WTC base (left image credit: Post)
Durst Organization and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey gave the public an up-close glimpse of 1 World Trade Center’s base by releasing new renderings to the New York Post. The 185-foot-wide cube podium, designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill, will have vertical glass “fins” that suggest texture by varying patterns and extend from stainless steel panels. Aluminum screens behind the steel will illuminate the base. [more]
From left: Durst Organization Chairman Douglas Durst, architect David Childs and a rendering of 1 WTC
An alteration to the design of the spire atop 1 World Trade Center could work against the tower’s bid to be the tallest structure in America, the New York Times reported. In January, the Durst Organization confirmed it was removing the fiberglass and steel casing (known as the radome) around the mast, that would have brought the the 400-foot pole to 23 feet in diameter. Without the cladding the diameter of the spire would be just six feet, rendering it unlikely to be counted as part of the building’s height by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. [more]
From left: Danny Meyer, Anthony Malkin and 1 World Trade Center
Operating observation decks atop large towers is so profitable that seven bidders, including two from outside the United States, submitted proposals to the Durst Organization and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey to do so at 1 World Trade Center, according to the New York Times. [more]
Thomas Bow, senior vice president at Durst Organization, and 1 WTC
There’s a new plan for the 480-foot 1 World Trade Center spire that could lure more tenants at the expense of the architect’s vision for the final structure. The Wall Street Journal reported the Durst Organization has gotten the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey on board to install a radio and television broadcast antenna inside the building’s spire.
“Our expectations would be to become the premiere broadcast facility in New York City,” said Thomas Bow, senior vice president at the Durst Organization. [more]
From left: Mitt Romney and his debt clock (credit: Mitt Romney campaign site), the debt clock erected by Seymour Durst and Seymour Durst
The Durst Organization, a long-time supporter of Democratic politicians, has inadvertently made a contribution to Republican’s Mitt Romney campaign — in the form of a clock design, the New York Observer reported.
Romney’s clock looks similar in both format and color to the one that late developer Seymour Durst erected in 1989 in front of Bryant Park to depict the increasing national debt. Romney uses his as a prop to “represent President Obama’s economic failures,” Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein said. [more]
From left: a rendering of University Center and Douglas Durst, chairman of the Durst Organization
With campus space becoming increasingly tight, the New School enlisted the Durst Organization and architect Skidmore Owings & Merrill to develop and design a new $353 million academic and dormitory space, dubbed the University Center, on Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village.
But now a couple who lives next door to the construction site is claiming the project has shifted their five-story condominium building at 5 East 13th Street by at least four inches and is causing the gradual destruction of their home. [more]
From the November issue: New York is, of course, the shopping (and eating) capital of the country — if not the world. But what do the latest concerns about a double-dip recession mean for the countless stores, restaurants and shops packed into Manhattan?
In this month’s Q & A, The Real Deal talked to Manhattan retail brokers about how the retail market — which tanked in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown — is holding up.
Brokers said they are seeing strong rents and activity in prime areas like Fifth Avenue, Time Square, Soho and the Upper West Side. But, they say, secondary and tertiary submarkets are hurting, with continuing declines in asking rents and increases in vacancy rates. [more]
There’s a rumor floating in real estate circles that the vacant retail space in 4 Times Square at the corner of 42nd Street and Broadway is accounted for. Last night, the Durst Organization held a party for brokers to show off the space, in part, to prove those rumors false.
“It’s frustrating when you reach out to a respected brokerage and you hear them say, ‘I thought that space was taken,’” John Grotto, senior leasing manager at the Durst Organization, told The Real Deal.
Durst Organization President Douglas Durst and more than 100 brokers were on hand to tour the 42,550-square-foot, three-floor space and enjoy ribs, brisket and mac and cheese from Virgil’s Real Barbecue — so much of it, in fact, that the restaurant was begging lingering brokers to take leftovers home. [more]
World Trade Center siteFrom the September issue: Construction crews have been working feverishly at the World Trade Center site in anticipation of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks later this month.
But when families and friends of the victims gather there for the commemorative ceremony and the opening of the National September 11 Memorial, they will also see major progress at many of the buildings around them.
Indeed, lately — after years of delays and political infighting — steel has been rising rapidly at the 16-acre site.
Just to the north of the memorial, attendees will see the new $3.2 billion 1 World Trade Center, the most expensive office building ever constructed in the city, built to about the 80th floor. To the east, they will see the construction at three additional tower sites.
While much has been written about the progress at ground zero in a piecemeal fashion, this month, The Real Deal takes a closer at look how all of the pieces fit together — and how the finances pencil out for the developers. [more]
From the August issue: For the owners of distressed properties, it’s a harrowing ride to stabilization. Note sale, foreclosure, bankruptcy or recapitalization, there is no easy path from financial trouble to stable footing. And while some savvy investors have seized control of valuable New York City properties, many owners and lenders have lost billions of dollars through distressed real estate sales and restructurings since the financial crisis began. This month The Real Deal examines five deals and how they unfolded. In the third part of the series, we look at 855 Sixth Avenue, a development site just a few blocks south of Herald Square where Durst Fetner Residential stepped in and is preparing to erect a 500,000-square-foot building — 300,000 of which will be devoted to 350 rental units (80 percent market rate and 20 percent “affordable”). There will also be a 325-key, 130,000-square-foot hotel, and 90,000 square feet of retail. Click here to read the story. [more]
