Time Warner is in talks with the creator of its Columbus Circle namesake for another new headquarters on Manhattan’s Far West Side. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Related Companies is pitching Time Warner on a piece of its $15 billion Hudson Yards development project, less than 10 years after the company moved into its Time Warner Center headquarters. Related, which built the Time Warner Center, is now said to be offering Time Warner the chance to save money and consolidate operations with a move to Hudson Yards, where the developer is planning 12.9 million square feet of office, retail and residential space and has been on the hunt for corporate anchor tenants in order to begin construction. Comments

A Joseph Moinian-Stephen Ross battle for tenants may be underway, with Moinian announcing plans to build a new office tower just north of Related Companies’ $15 billion West Side rail yards development, which is currently seeking office tenants, according to the Wall Street Journal. Although Moinian hasn’t divulged too many secrets about his new development, set to break ground on 11th Avenue between 34th and 35th streets, he did say he plans to begin marketing the 1.6 million-square-foot tower “very soon.” While the timing of Moinian’s announcement may be brushed off as mere coincidence — the developer said he’d been planning the project for five years — their relationship has not been free from tension. The Related CEO has been angling to foreclose on Moinian’s 3 Columbus Circle office building. [WSJ] [more]

The Related Companies is plowing ahead with its preliminary construction work at the 26-acre West Side rail yards site, between 30th and 33rd streets, 10th Avenue and the Hudson River, which it ultimately plans to transform into a massive office, retail and residential destination. According to the Wall Street Journal, the developer is hiring a contractor this week to demolish the 60,000-square-foot former metal products distribution center that stands on the site of its first new rail yards building, an 800-foot tower with 1 million square feet of office space and 25 floors of apartments. [more]

Jeff Blau, president of Related Companies, is forging ahead with his West Side rail yards project, according to the New York Observer, which recently sat down with the New York City developer to discuss development and the market’s overall strength. Having signed a contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority last week, Blau said that he can now “really get started on the development and talking to potential tenants coming to the project.” But Blau has yet to determine when construction will launch, noting that “the markets have just gone through a pretty significant shock,” and that “nobody has a crystal ball to know exactly when to start.” While he is optimistic about the market, Blau said that he doesn’t “think the market is quite ready,
this year, for new construction starts,” and that he doesn’t “think the
construction lending markets are buying debt.” [NYO]

[more]

Jeff Blau, president of Related Companies, is forging ahead with his West Side rail yards project, according to the New York Observer, which recently sat down with the New York City developer to discuss development and the market’s overall strength. Having signed a contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority last week, Blau said that he can now “really get started on the development and talking to potential tenants coming to the project.” But Blau has yet to determine when construction will launch, noting that “the markets have just gone through a pretty significant shock,” and that “nobody has a crystal ball to know exactly when to start.” While he is optimistic about the market, Blau said that he doesn’t “think the market is quite ready,
this year, for new construction starts,” and that he doesn’t “think the
construction lending markets are buying debt.” [NYO]

[more]

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has approved its $1 billion deal with the Related Companies to redevelop the 26-acre former Long Island Rail Road site along the Hudson River, the Associated Press reported. Related must pay $20 million when the contract is signed and an additional $21.7 million over the next year, according to the agreement. But the developer is also allowed to delay closing until the city’s office vacancy rate drops to 11 percent and apartment prices reach $1,200 per square foot. [more]

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has released the terms of its $1 billion West Side rail yards development deal with the Related Companies, which is up for approval by the agency’s board tomorrow and has not yet been signed by the developer (see the full agreement after the jump). According to the Observer, Related doesn’t have to start paying rent on its 99-year lease until the deal closes, which won’t happen until certain market conditions are met. [more]

The Related Companies received good and bad news regarding the Far West Side last week. The good: the Metropolitan Transit Authority has granted Stephen Ross and his company another extension on a deadline to sign a contract for developing the 12-million-square-foot West Side rail yards site, which had been set to expire at the end of January. The bad: Goldman Sachs is abandoning the project, leaving the developer without a minority partner. The two events appear to be unrelated; the two-month extension was expected as the company needed more time to complete the documents on a revised financial agreement on the $1 billion, 99-year lease for the site. Related will now have until March 31 to sign the contract and hand over $21.75 million. An additional $21.75 million must then be paid over the course of one year. “Related is and remains the majority partner of the venture. Goldman Sachs has informed us that they will no longer be moving forward as a minority partner,” Related spokesperson Joanna Rose said in a statement. “Related remains fully committed and has the capabilities to execute on this historic development opportunity to create New York’s next great neighborhood.” [NYO]

The World Product Centre, the anchor tenant for Gary Barnett and his Extell Development’s proposed 60-story tower at 555 West 34th Street near the Javits Center and the West Side Rail Yards, has changed its mind and is going elsewhere, the Post reported. WPC founder Israel Green signed a letter for intent for 1 million feet of the 1.5 million-foot building in 2007, intending to sublease much of the space to subtenants like Hewlett-Packard. Instead, the planned healthcare products showcase will be housed in just 300,000 feet of alternate space where the rent is cheaper. “The advantages are we can deliver in 18 months and be considerably less expensive for our tenants,” John Strong, CEO of WPC, told a Nashville newspaper. In July, WPC had said groundbreaking on the 34th Street site was planned for November, but the Department of Buildings has a stop-work order out on the site after builders were caught working without permits there in September. Extell’s interest-only $60 million mortgage on the site is due at the beginning of July to New York Community Bank, but that deadline could be extended, according to the Post.

The city’s public and private development projects are a testament to its bright future, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in his weekly radio address on 1010 WINS yesterday. Bloomberg praised the job-creating new NYPD College Point Police Academy, a $750 million project that he said will create 2,000 construction jobs after being on the drawing boards for more than 20 years. In Williamsburg, the vacant “30-acre eyesore” known as the Broadway Triangle is awaiting final approval from the City Council on its rezoning, which Bloomberg said will allow close to 1,900 new apartments, nearly half of which will be designated affordable. Bloomberg also cited the last piece of the West Side rail yards’ rezoning decision, expected this week, as a way for the city to preserve affordable housing options, as well as the Hunters Point South development on Queens’ East River waterfront, where construction broke ground six weeks ago. “All these projects in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan spell j-o-b-s for New Yorkers,” Bloomberg said. TRD