The Center for Urban Real Estate, a new research group at Columbia University, has proposed connecting Lower Manhattan and Governors Island with millions of cubic yards of landfill, the New York Times reported, to create a new neighborhood called LoLo, which stands for Lower Lower Manhattan.

The project represents the kind of big thinking that New York needs, said Vishaan Chakrabarti, the director of the center. It would create 88 million square feet of development and generate $16.7 billion in revenue for the city over 20 to 30 years, he said.

Chakrabarti unveiled some elements of the proposal at a meeting held by the Municipal Arts Society earlier this year, the Times said. [more]

New York skyline and Hong Kong skyline

Even as homebuyers from Asia flock to the city, Asian cityscapes could also serve as an example for New York City, New York Magazine reported in an article.

Brooklyn and Queens are not dense enough and have too much blue sky, Vishaan Chakrabarti, a former employee of Related Companies and now in charge of the real estate program at Columbia University, said. If there were fewer one- and two-story buildings and more “vertical cities,” he said, it would help to discourage automobile use, conserve energy and push more residents onto the subway. He noted that Hong Kong’s transit corporation MTR made a fortune by building skyscrapers on landfill and then building out rail lines to serve those developments. [more]

Outgoing Cushman CEO Bruce Mosler and John Cushman, current chairman

In an unusual move for commercial brokerages in New York City, the still-unnamed replacement for outgoing Cushman & Wakefield CEO Bruce Mosler may not have a real estate background, the company told The Real Deal today. The firm announced last month that Mosler would step down Jan. 1, 2010 as president and CEO and become co-chairman of the board, along with John Cushman, who is currently chairman. No replacement has been named, and the search led by the company’s board of directors and executive search firm Spencer Stuart, continues. “We are committed to identifying the best candidate for the position and we have cast a wide net outside and inside the industry,” a spokesperson for the company said in an e-mail, but would not comment on why the firm would look beyond the brokerage industry. Cushman is owned by Exor, the investment company of the Italian Agnelli family, which is represented on the board of directors of Cushman & Wakefield. [more]

Vishaan Chakrabarti is a busy man. Between taking on his new post as the director of the real estate development program at Columbia University’s architecture and planning school, and reminding everyone, repeatedly, that New Yorkers should be embarrassed by the sad state of Penn Station, the Observer has dubbed him “Professor Skyscraper.” Chakrabarti, president of the Moynihan Station Venture, a joint project of Related Companies and Vornado Realty Trust, is considered by some a pioneer of the Far West Side. According to Anna Levin, a City Planning commissioner, Chakrabarti has made one smart move that some developers overlook: he’s ingratiated himself with the Far West Side’s Community Board 4. “He’s very well thought of out here in the CB4 community,” Levin said. “He was always accessible; he was always thinking.”

Mass transit dollars need to keep rolling in to keep real estate development in New York City, and the country, moving, according to industry experts. The correlation between the health of mass transit and the long-term condition of surrounding real estate on a local level as well as nationwide was the focus at this morning’s Baruch College panel, “Transformative Infrastructure: Key Decisions on Transportation.” “Transit is a bellwether for urban decay,” said Christopher Boylan, deputy executive director of community affairs at the Metropolitan Transit Authority, pointing to the parallel improvements in transportation and quality of life in New York City since the 1970s. Much like crime and poverty have improved in the city over the decades, Boylan said that the transit system has shown marked progress. “The fact that you can get on the Lexington line and understand the announcement was a wonder eight or nine years ago,” Boylan said. “It’s not anymore.” [more]

A Related Companies executive is heading back to school as the leader of Columbia University’s real estate development program. Vishaan Chakrabarti, a developer, architect and planner, is leaving his
position as executive vice president of design and planning at Related this fall to take charge of the real estate development
program at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and
Preservation, the university announced today. Chakrabarti will be
responsible for expanding the program’s faculty, reviewing the
curriculum and making admissions more competitive, he told The Real Deal. “The idea is to make it the best in class real estate program in the world,” Chakrabarti said. [more]