From left: Sam Zell of Equity Residential, Bob Toll of Toll Brothers, Will Silverman, Woody Heller, both of Studley, and 400 Park Avenue South

In the most expensive development site deal of the year so far, home builder Toll Brothers and real estate investment trust Equity Residential partnered in reportedly paying $134 million for a large development site at 400 Park Avenue South.

The joint venture plans to build a 40-story condominium and rental apartment tower at the Park Avenue South and 28th Street site, which has 400,000 square feet of development rights, the companies said in a statement.

Sam Zell’s Equity Residential will own and operate the lower 22 floors with 265 rental apartments and retail, while Toll Brothers will build and sell about 100 condo units on the upper floors, the Wall Street Journal reported. [more]

Glenwood Management has purchased another plot of land from Fordham University, according to a recent property transaction filed with the city today.

The company bought a vacant development site at 165 West 60th Street, between Ninth and Amsterdam avenues, for $75 million, the filing shows, adding to its portfolio of former Fordham sites. Glenwood is said to be planning a massive 54-story residential tower at an adjacent lot at 160 West 60th Street.

Gary Jacob, executive vice president at Glenwood, declined to comment on the acquisition, which closed Sept. 23. A representative for Fordham was not immediately available for comment. [more]

1. Fordham University breaks ground on new $250M law school
[Globest]
2. West Village pastry shop temporarily shut due to permit issue
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3. Dagny & Barstow to buy Lenny Kravitz and Denzel Washington’s 264 Bowery nightclub
[Crain's]
4. Fashion designer Erin Featherstone moving showroom to 225 West Broadway
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5. Six spaces, six bizarre design obsessions
[NYMag]
6. 132 Second Place at Carroll Gardens gets unsightly wall
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7. Former convent at Cobble Hill to become apartments
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8. Fulton Area Business Alliance to hold workshop on Putnam Triangle Plaza
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9. Little progress on construction of Richard B. Fisher building at Brooklyn Academy of Music
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Glenwood Management closed on the purchase of a vacant development site on the Upper West Side from Fordham University for $125 million which included the acquisition of more than 300,000 square feet of development rights. Glenwood went into contract in August and closed Jan. 7, city property records published yesterday show, for the site at 49-55 Amsterdam Avenue, at the corner of 62nd Street, adjacent to the school’s Lincoln Center Campus. The site is approximately 90 feet by 110 feet, property records show. [more]

From left: renderings of the building’s library, trial court room and exterior (source: Pei Cobb Freed & Partners)

Fordham University has broken ground on its new School of Law and residence hall, the school announced today. The 22-story building, a $250 million development on 62nd Street between Amsterdam and Columbus avenues, will house the university’s law school on the bottom nine floors, including classrooms, a trial court facility and a 562,000-volume law library. The remaining floors inside the 468,000-square-foot building will be used as dorms for up to 430 undergraduate students. TRD [more]

Glenwood Management is in contract to buy a parcel of land across from Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus for $100 million and has plans to build a high-rise residential tower there, sources told Crain’s. The Amsterdam Avenue property is near the site of another proposed residential tower, for which Fordham had been seeking proposals from developers — including Jeffrey Levine of Douglaston Development — until a recent deadline. [more]

A judge has upheld a permit change allowing Fordham University to expand its Lincoln Center campus, according to the Wall Street Journal, despite the objections of nearby residents. The planned expansion, which would include new student housing, library space, a theater and a new law school, among other academic buildings, is set to take place over the next 25 years. But while the school may be enthused over its development plan, residents at the Alfred Condominium, which sits amid the campus at 161 West 61st Street off Amsterdam Avenue, are not. The condo board’s suit attempting to block the development, which a judge rejected Monday, had claimed that the expansion violated the city’s standards on urban renewal. [WSJ]

[more]

A judge has upheld a permit change allowing Fordham University to expand its Lincoln Center campus, according to the Wall Street Journal, despite the objections of nearby residents. The planned expansion, which would include new student housing, library space, a theater and a new law school, among other academic buildings, is set to take place over the next 25 years. But while the school may be enthused over its development plan, residents at the Alfred Condominium, which sits amid the campus at 161 West 61st Street off Amsterdam Avenue, are not. The condo board’s suit attempting to block the development, which a judge rejected Monday, had claimed that the expansion violated the city’s standards on urban renewal. [WSJ]

[more]

The Alfred

Residents at the Alfred Condominium on West 61st Street near Amsterdam
Avenue, surrounded on three sides by Fordham University’s Lincoln
Center campus, will soon have to walk around the block to get to West
62nd Street. The University terminated a 20-year lease last weekend
that had allowed residents of the 38-story luxury high-rise to cut
through the campus via a private walkway. Soon, that walkway will be
gated shut, in a move Sidney Goldfisher, president of the Alfred’s
board of managers, called “vindictive” against the suit the board
brought against the University last week, which aims to halt Fordham’s
expansion plans. Fordham has proposed 50- to 60-story towers on either
side of the Alfred. The board says they violate a 1957 agreement that
says the University would use the land for academic purposes. The
proposal also includes a new law school and dormitory in the current
location of the walkway. The University had originally agreed to build
a replacement once the new buildings are constructed, but it was not
included in the master plan approved by the City Council and the City
Planning Commission in March. Residents fear that when Fordham closes
the current walkway, it will be gone for good. [NYT]
[more]

The New York Times interviewed Jeffrey Levine, president of Levine Builders, whose projects include the Edge in Williamsburg. Levine said financing is the biggest hurdle for developers right now, and Levine has had to withdraw from several projects, including one on the Fordham University campus, due to lack of financing. Phase I of the Edge is selling one or two units per week, Levine said, but financing for Phase II may take several years. The development has not reduced prices, Levine said, but acknowledged that he has helped buyers with their closing costs. Comments

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