Related Companies exec discusses Midtown development restructuring

Bruce Beal, an executive vice president at Related Companies, sat down with the Observer to discuss, among other things, the company’s mixed-use development at 440 West 42nd Street between 10th and Dyer avenues. The group is set to restart construction on the 1.2 million-square-foot structure, after rearranging some of its expectations and financials. Beal said that Related Companies got $700 million in financing at the end of 2007, but that the changing financial landscape drastically altered the project. “We built the foundation and I think then we woke up in the middle of ’08, and we said, ‘the market’s changing drastically, the cost structure doesn’t work anymore,’” Beal said. “Rather than just putting the blinders on, and saying it’s going to be what it’s going to be, we basically shut the job down.” The result was a nine-month review of the project and a 20 percent reduction in costs.