Yet Another Skyscraper to Rise in Lower Manhattan

Lower Manhattan will be getting yet another skyscraper. A new 42-story, mixed-use building will soon begin to rise directly across from City Hall Park at 265-267 Broadway.

The project is just one of several developments which will be getting underway early next year in Lower Manhattan, including a 25-story tower planned next to Trinity Church.

The 42-story Gene Kaufman designed tower will soar 510-feet-tall between Warren and Chambers streets, with a hotel on the lower floors and luxury condominium residences above.

An 80-room hotel will take up the first 12 floors, including a lounge, lobby, garden, and offices on the first floor, and a restaurant and kitchen on the second floor.

The next 27 floors will be comprised of 38 full-floor and duplex condominium units. The top three floors will house to a super-pricey, ultra-luxury, triplex penthouse.

Demolition of the existing 5-story office building is expected later this spring, followed immediately by construction for the new 42-story tower.

Another New Building Planned for Hudson Yards

A new nine-story commercial building will soon begin to rise on a parking lot at 220 11th Avenue in Hudson Yards. Located between 25th Street and 26th Street, the vacant lot is five blocks south of the new 7 train stop at 34th Street-Hudson Yards station. 

Current plans from the project’s developer, Moinian Group, call for office space, a clear indicator of over-saturation of condominiums in the neighborhood. 

Earlier plans for a structure designed by the late Zaha Hadid, had called for an 11-story, 158,000-square-foot mixed-use building with 40 condos, a museum, and a restaurant.

The new 133-foot-tall ground-up development will total 184,000 square feet, including 148,000 square feet of Class-A commercial space with open, column-free floor plates, 17-foot high ceilings. 

The concrete structure will have 11,000 square feet of outdoor space, including a rooftop park spanning the block from West 25th to West 26th street. 

The new building, designed by Studios Architects, will also have a lower level and mezzanine.

The site has been vacant since Moinian’s initial plans were announced in 2016, except for the installation of a Mark di Suvero sculpture at the site last year.

1,400-Foot Tower Planned For 401 Seventh Avenue

On the site of the Hotel Pennsylvania, at 401 Seventh Avenue, a massive 1,400-foot skyscraper called “Penn15” will soon occupy the small morsel of empty sky sandwiched between the Empire State Building and Hudson Yards.

Vornado Realty Trust has big plans to construct one of the largest office buildings in New York City, a massive 2.8-million-square-foot tower designed by Rafael Vinoly, rising more than 1,400-feet into the Midtown sky.

Contrary to recent reports, Facebook has no plans to occupy the new tower. 

The Internet giant has already committed to One Madison Avenue in Gramarcy Patrk, which ElectricWeb will spotlight in our next issue. 
  

Regardless, the new building design will be built around open floor plans and numerous outdoor spaces designed to lure technology tenants.

Variable stacked floor plates would be interspersed and cantilevered atop one another, with each of the tower’s five components totaling 560,000 square feet apiece.

Its design has been described by some commentators as a Jenga block tower, only made out of glass and green space instead of wood blocks.

The design of the base of the tower would be particularly elegant, featuring a terraced garden atop the first floor, and a soaring glass atrium in the middle of the structure. 

The new skyscraper will be both taller and bulkier than the Empire State Building, just a few blocks to the east.
 

While Penn15’s rooftop would stand 1,400 feet above street level, its interior will only include 48 usable floors, with 43 of those dedicated to office space. 

The bottom of the tower would span three floors, including the lobby, ground floor retail stores, conference space, a restaurant, and two theaters, one of which will accommodate up to 700 people.

The developer has long considered plans to renovate the 1919-vintage hotel with a major hotel company, convert it into a huge convention center and entertainment venue or demolish and replace it.

The famed Hotel Pennsylvania, at 15 Penn Plaza, and its 1,000 rooms has fallen victim to increasingly lurid headlines following its renovation. 

A baby’s death there earlier this year was ruled a homicide, there have been multiple suicides and accidental deaths at the property in recent  years, and Internet reviews are overwhelmingly terrible with many guests believing the hotel to be haunted.

Lenox Hill’s $2.5-Billion Expansion Aims High

Lenox Hill Hospital is planning a colossal $2.5-billion expansion beginning with a new 41-story residential building on part of the hospital’s Upper East Side property. The 490-foot-tall condominium tower will sit on the corner of East 76th Street and Park Avenue and include about 200 units.  
 

A second 30-story tower will be built on the opposite Park Avenue corner at East 77th Street. 

The building will feature a new Mother-Baby Hospital, increasing the emergency room to nearly four times its current size to 56,000 square feet, as well as new operating rooms, and patient rooms. 

Plans call for a total of 1.3 million square feet, up from the hospital’s current 780,000 square feet at 100 East 77th Street.

Lenox Hill plans to build on its reputation for maternity care—Beyoncé delivered her first child at the hospital in 2012—with a new Mother-Baby Hospital, which will have a separate Park Avenue entrance. The hospital will add labor and delivery suites and expand its neonatal intensive care unit.

Northwell is also building a block-long, 250,000-square-foot outpatient care facility on Third Avenue between 76th Street and 77th Street. That facility will include a cancer and ambulatory surgery center, as well as medical offices.

Off-street ambulance bays for six ambulances, larger, deeper loading docks, subway station improvements, an atrium and other publicly accessible spaces are also part of the ambitious project.

“Lenox Hill Hospital is one of the most storied institutions in Manhattan, serving communities throughout the city for over 160 years,” said Michael Dowling, president and chief executive officer of Northwell Health, adding that the residential tower was added to “offset costs for rebuilding the hospital.” 

"We have spoken to some of the top real estate people," Dowling said. "That building would throw off a substantial amount of money."  

Lenox Hill's campus occupies a city block from East 76th Street to East 77th Street between Lexington and Park avenues. Its campus is made up of 10 buildings—the newest one built in 1972.

The project will take an estimated six to eight years to complete, and has been broken up into three phases to allow for the continued operation of hospital facilities while the new development is constructed. 

Northwell Health expects to begin construction on the first tower next year. 

Since acquiring Lenox Hill Hospital in 2010, Northwell has spent more than $200 million on renovations. 

But to make the facility's patient rooms private, rather than multi-bed, and to add technology to its operating rooms, a more complete overhaul is needed. 

It will cost approximately $2.5 billion to completely rebuild the iconic Upper East Side institution, which was founded in 1857.

Northwell Health is the largest private employer in the state, with 68,000 employees. 

44-Story Tower to Rise at 451 10th Avenue

A 44-story, mixed-use building will soon begin to rise at 451 10th Avenue in Manhattan.

The corner lot is located in the Hudson Yards between West 35th Street and West 36th Street, just one block north of the #7 train’s 34th Street-Hudson Yards station.

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has partnered with the Related Companies to develop the two-tower, 1.4-million-square-foot project.

The first 580-foot-tall skyscraper will encompass 415,000 square feet, with 268,000 square feet of new residential space, 113,500 square feet for community facilities, a 14th floor mezzanine, and 33,250 square feet of office space.

The building will hold 526 residences, averaging 510 square feet each.

The second building, which is still in the planning stages, will be a 950,000 square-foot office tower located at 511 West 35th Street (aka 450 Hudson Boulevard), directly adjacent to the 10th Avenue tower, on the corner of West 35th Street and Hudson Boulevard East.

The former-governor-turned-developer quietly assembled the 56,793-square-foot development site, acquiring the neighboring parcels for a total of $150 million in 2013 and 2015.

Following the death of his father last year, Spitzer took a much more active role in his family’s sprawling real estate portfolio, which is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion.

He’s cashed in some of the family’s trophy real estate holdings, such as the Crown Building, which he sold earlier this year for a whopping $1.78 billion.

In addition to his Hudson Yards projects, the developer is also planning a pair of large rental buildings on the Williamsburg waterfront.

35-Story Upper East Side Tower to Soar 449-Feet

Miki Naftali and the Rockefeller Group are planning to construct a 449-foot-tall luxury condo tower at 200 East 83rd Street, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. 

Also known as 1469 3rd Avenue, the corner lot is located between 2nd Avenue and 3rd Avenue, three blocks south of the new 86th Street subway station.

The 35-story building will total 209,000 square feet, with 206,000 square feet for 86 residences averaging around 2,400 square feet each. 

The development will also have 3,100 square feet of ground floor retail space, spanning 100 feet on Third Avenue and about 100 feet on East 83rd Street, as well as 26 underground parking spaces.

The Naftali Group teamed up with Rockefeller last year to bid for the Upper East Side development site, which the developers purchased from Muss Development for $167 million.

The site — which contains six low-rise buildings — has more than 250,000 buildable square feet, or roughly $668 per square foot. 

The Naftali Group is also in contract to buy 470 Kent Avenue, a large development site on the Williamsburg waterfront for $185 million.