In early 2008, Francis Greenburger’s Time Equities began demolishing three buildings at 50 West Street to make room for a $600 million, 62-story hotel and residential development. A few months later, the development was put on hold as a result of the financial crisis.
“Market conditions were too unstable to proceed at the time,” Greenburger said. “We just secured the site and decided to wait until conditions improved.”
Time’s prospective development was just one of many stalled construction sites on a 650-building list compiled by the city’s Department of Buildings in 2009, Crain’s reported. Now, two years later, construction is recommencing at some of those sites — about 550 sites have restarted in the two years the list has existed, including 111 Kent Avenue and 175 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg — but not as quickly as some might hope. Experts say it may take longer than it did after the last downturn in the early 1990s for all of these projects to get going again. [more]

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Jahn’s rendering of 50 West Street and developer Francis Greenburger

Developer Francis Greenburger’s Time Equities is putting the kibosh on speculation that a revival of its planned, Helmut Jahn-designed 50 West Street tower is imminent. Yesterday, the developer was reported to have paid $1.5 million to obtain new permits for its $600 million, 65-story hotel and condominium project, which has been shelved since 2008, causing several publications to infer that this signaled the rebirth of one of Lower Manhattan’s largest stalled developments. But contrary to those reports, Time Equities said today that such conclusions are “premature.” Time Equities did obtain new permits at the site, but only because it changed the contractor of record to Skanska after its previous contractor, HRH, decided to pursue a Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in April, the company said.
– Sarabeth Sanders [more]

Helmut Jahn’s $600 million hotel and condominium tower at 50 West Street is coming back to life after a three-year hiatus during the downturn. According to the Post, developer Francis Greenburger of Time Equities paid $1.5 million last week to obtain new construction permits for the 714-foot-tall, 65-story project, which is slated to go up south of the World Trade Center site and which had previously been shelved since 2008. Curbed reported yesterday that the Department of Buildings has just issued a new permit at the time to Gruzen Samton Architects, the local architect of record (Jahn is still the design architect). Plans call for a 139-room hotel on floors four through 13 of the building, while floors 14 through 63 will contain 301 condos. [more]

Time Equities has purchased a pair of adjacent Murray Hill townhouses for $3.65 million, the company announced yesterday. The four-story buildings, at 153 and 155 East 37th Street, were converted to rental apartments in the late 1950s and now contain 17 one-bedroom units. Francis Greenburger, chairman of Time Equities, said the acquisition represents a push to add to the company’s residential portfolio as the economy improves. TRD [more]

Michael Rudder

The former head of commercial condominium sales and leasing at Francis Greenberger’s development firm Time Equities, Michael Rudder, launched a new brokerage and advisory firm this month fo

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Francis Greenburger said Time Equities is canceling its Sunset Park plans.

Time Equities has cast aside plans to purchase and rehabilitate two
major government-owned sites along the Brooklyn waterfront in Sunset
Park, the company CEO said, citing the poor economy. The Manhattan-based real estate investment and development firm pulled
out of talks with the city’s Economic Development Corporation to buy
and rehabilitate the two locations. “Given current market conditions, Time Equities was unable to create an
economically viable business plan with the Economic Development
Corporation for the acquisition and redevelopment of Bush Terminal
buildings B and C and Federal Building No. 2,” Francis Greenburger,
chairman and CEO of Time Equities, said in a statement.

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