From left: Vornado Chairman Steven Roth, a rendering of the 15 Penn Plaza skyscraper and Hotel PennsylvaniaVornado Realty Trust has put off constructing a massive skyscraper that would challenge the Empire State Building’s height at 15 Penn Plaza, sources told the New York Post, and might even pour millions into renovating the hotel that currently occupies the site.

With market rents still hovering below the rates necessary to make office development profitable and the financial firms that would make sensible anchors cutting operations instead of expanding, Vornado has decided to hold off on the development. [more]

The City Planning Commission gave its blessing yesterday to zoning
changes that pave the way for a massive Vornado Realty Trust-developed
skyscraper on the site of the Hotel Pennsylvania on Seventh Avenue
between 32nd and 33rd streets, according to the Post. The proposed
67-story 15 Penn Plaza
tower is more than double the size current zoning allows, but
Commissioner Amanda Burden expressed her support for the project
because of its location across from Penn Station, which would make it
accessible to a high volume of travelers. At 1,216 feet, the office
property would be the city’s third-tallest building, though the
completion of One World Trade Center in 2013 would bump it to fourth
place. The proposed zoning changes will now move on to the City Council
for final approval. [Post]

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Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden, currently at the beginning stages of an $850 million renovation, would move one block west under a revived proposal by Vornado Realty Trust’s Steven Roth that is gaining traction amongst arena and city officials, the New York Times reported. MSG’s 5,600-square-foot theater is slated to close temporarily at the end of June for the first stage of construction. Roth, who controls much of the area, including 1 Penn Plaza and the Hotel Pennsylvania, reportedly told officials that the renovation would be more expensive and disruptive than building a new arena altogether. Furthermore, he contended, it won’t hold a candle to Brooklyn’s planned Barclays Center for the Nets even when the job is done. Roth’s plans call for MSG to move into the James A. Farley Post Office across the street, which would also become part of an expanded transit hub called Moynihan Station. The current arena would be demolished and rebuilt as a retail mall. [NYT]

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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]

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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]

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Vornado Realty Trust has great aspirations for Herald Square, including a number of pedestrian improvements to Penn Station such as more subway entrances, and a reopened and revamped pedestrian tunnel. But Vornado, which owns a massive amount of retail and office space in the neighborhood, is seeking variances to its Hotel Pennsylvania site in exchange, according to the Post’s Steve Cuozzo. While Vornado could, technically, replace the Hotel Pennsylvania, which it bought in 1997, as a 1.15-million-square-foot tower without public approval, the developer has grander plans for the space, hoping to build a tower of around 2.05 million square feet. This would require a zoning change and an air rights acquisition.

Elie Hirschfeld

Elie Hirschfeld is the president and CEO of Hirschfeld Properties, where he worked with his late father, parking garage titan Abraham Hirschfeld, for more than 20 years. A triathlete and an avid theatergoer (he’s been a voter in the Tony Awards every year since 1996), Elie Hirschfeld and his company were behind such projects as New York’s first open-air garage, the Hotel Pennsylvania and the Manhattan Mall. This week, The Real Deal talked to the developer, who is reportedly worth more than half a billion dollars (he wouldn’t comment on his wealth), about his portfolio, the Hamptons home he’s selling, the shocking scandal that rocked his family, and the Hirschfeld legacy.
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From the February issue: As New York City construction firms get slammed by the downturn, they are turning to more modest projects, in some cases taking on multimillion-dollar renovations rather than the multibillion-dollar skyscrapers. While it’s clear that the collapse of the New York development market has taken a toll on builders and brokers, there may be nobody in the industry hit as hard as construction firms. As banks have largely cut off financing for new projects and cranes have been mothballed, thousands of contractors have lost their jobs. “It’s having a devastating impact on the construction market,” said Lou Coletti, president of the Building Trades Employers’ Association, which represents 1,700 construction management and contractor firms. “There are very few, if any, new projects moving forward.” To combat that lack of work, major New York construction firms are bidding for much smaller projects and diversifying into public-sector work, while other firms have been forced into bankruptcy protection.[more] [more]

From the October issue: Stupid, stupid, stupid cheap.” That’s how low prices have to fall before the commercial real estate market hits bottom, Steven Roth, the chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, predicted earlier this year. In a letter to shareholders in April, the square-jawed mogul confided, “I think we are now at the third and last stupid. Not that he’s buying yet. But in recent months, the 67-year-old real estate titan, along with CEO Michael Fascitelli, the other half of the so-called “Vornado Tornado,” has been building a war chest to go shopping. And when Vornado gets ready to shop, there’s good reason to pay attention.

From the September issue: The international passenger airline Pan American Airways signed Manhattan’s largest office lease to date, taking 613,000 square feet in the as-yet-uncompleted tower rising at 200 Park Avenue in Midtown, 49 years ago this month.

The 25-year lease at the building that sits on top of Grand Central Terminal at 44th Street involved a total rental value of $115.5 million.

The 59-story office tower was going to be called Grand Central City, but was renamed the Pan Am Building after the deal was struck for about 15 floors.

When it opened in March 1963, the 2.9 million-square-foot office tower was the largest commercial building in the world.
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