Just in time for the annual meeting of the United Nations’ General Assembly, the top diplomat from Norway has purchased a plush new penthouse condo right in the nearby Turtle Bay neighborhood.
City and state officials are currently crafting an East Side waterfront plan that would include the construction of a new building for the United Nations, according to Crain’s. The plan, which is part of an effort to fill a 21-block gap on the East Side promenade between 38th and 59th streets, is still in its early stages. The total project, which would require the demolition of a local playground, could cost between $150 million and $200 million, according to officials close to the deal. The proposal comes amid a $1.9 billion renovation to the U.N. complex, which some say could make approval unlikely. [Crain's]
City and state officials are currently crafting an East Side waterfront plan that would include the construction of a new building for the United Nations, according to Crain’s. The plan, which is part of an effort to fill a 21-block gap on the East Side promenade between 38th and 59th streets, is still in its early stages. The total project, which would require the demolition of a local playground, could cost between $150 million and $200 million, according to officials close to the deal. The proposal comes amid a $1.9 billion renovation to the U.N. complex, which some say could make approval unlikely. [Crain's]
The first phase of renovations for the 59-year-old, 2.6 million-square-foot United Nations complex is complete, and once the six buildings reopen in 2013, the new open-office layout could test the “closed culture” its ambassadors are used to, said Michael Adlerstein, assistant secretary general of the U.N., on a panel last night at the Ford Foundation. According to Crain’s, the building has seen few changes since it opened in 1951 with just 50 nation states as members and offices that were mostly enclosed by floor-to-ceiling walls. [more]
The government of Somalia is facing foreclosure on a unit in the office condominium building where the country’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations is located.
The unit, #703 at 425 East 61st Street, is slated for a foreclosure auction May 7, 2010, according to court documents and PropertyShark.com.
The foreclosure suit, filed by the condo board in 2008, stems from $194,332 in unpaid common charges dating back nearly 20 years, according to court documents. A January court judgment also required the Democratic Republic of Somalia to pay the condo $58,751 in attorneys’ fees.
Elmi Ahmed Duale, Somalia’s current ambassador to the U.N., told The Real Deal that the government is working to pay the condo board in time to prevent the auction from taking place.
“We are seeing how best to pay those to whom the property owes something,” Duale said. [more]
The Commonwealth of Australia has signed a 15-year lease extension on the 33rd and 34th floors of Japan-based Hiro Real Estate’s 150 East 42nd Street, the former Mobil tower. The Commonwealth uses the 46,476-square-foot space for its Permanent Mission to the United Nations and Consulate-General in New York. Terms were not disclosed, but Gregg Espach, who represented the Commonwealth along with Daniel Nack of UGL Equis, said in a statement that the transaction “comes at a signal moment in today’s real estate market to reduce occupancy costs.” In October 2008, Tishman Speyer had been in talks to buy a leasehold on the tower for between $300 million and $400 million, before pulling out of the deal. Hiro was reportedly paying $22 million annually with hikes up to $72 million for a 75-year extension on the building, which sits on property owned by the Goelet family. TRD
The stalled development project at the site of Downtown Brooklyn’s former Albee Square Mall is being investigated for human rights abuses as part of a global United Nations crackdown, the Brooklyn Paper reported. Last weekend, State Department officials visited the site, where Albee Square Development had been putting up its City Point tower, to look into employment and labor violations on behalf of the U.N. The developers have promised more than 100 new jobs, luxury housing and retail space and have been granted numerous tax breaks along the way. Activists argue that the developers have taken that taxpayer money and are proposing to pay those 100-plus workers less than living wages in return. Chris Camponovo, the State Department senior adviser who toured the site with activists over the weekend, will make a recommendation about whether the project proposal contains human rights violations in November, after which the issue would be brought forth before the U.N. [Brooklyn Paper]
New York City housing is being questioned as a possible “human rights violation,” as affordable housing becomes increasingly difficult to come by, said Raquel Rolnik, who has been appointed a special rapporteur for a United Nations Human Rights Council study on the issue. Accessible housing is a crucial human rights issue, according to Rolnik, who is meeting with local housing activists to discuss crucial city issues such as the Atlantic Yards development and the New York City Housing Authority’s Grant Houses in Harlem. “Affordable housing here is not that affordable,” Rolnik said. “I am representing the right of adequate housing as a human right.” In addition to her study of New York City housing, Rolnik will conduct housing surveys in Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., a South Dakota Indian reservation and Wilkes-Barre, Penn. “Adequate housing is a human right,” Rolnik told the Indypendent, a local independent paper that relies largely on volunteerism and donations. “Second, today, now, it’s time to go forward, to implement that. I think that few countries in the world have the conditions to do that. And U.S. is one of them.” [NYT] and [Indypendent]
The Singapore government paid $29.5 million for a 40,000-square-foot
garage building near the United Nations that will be converted to
office space, a broker on the deal said. The Government of the Republic of Singapore closed on the purchase of
318 East 48th Street, between First and Second avenues, Oct.1,
according to Gil Robinov, executive managing director at brokerage NAI
Global New York City, who represented the southeast Asian nation. The seller was Chapman Consulting Group, an owner and operator of
garages, and was represented by David Noonan at Newmark Knight Frank, a
statement from NAI Global said. Note: Correction appended.
[more]
Lambasted for allowing Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy to stay on his Bedford property this week, Donald Trump fired back today, alleging that he was unaware that the controversial Khadafy was on his estate. According to a statement from the Bedford Town Supervisor Lee Roberts, Trump said he was under the impression that he had made a deal with partners in the United Arab Emirates, not Khadafy, who came to town this week for the United Nations General Assembly. Khadafy was ordered off the Trump estate two days ago, when town officials announced that the tent he had set up in the back yard was a code violation.
