Platinum - 247 West 46th St - Condo

[londonlawyer]

The September 1, 2005 edition of The New York Times reports that the building housing McCale's Pub on the northeast corner of 46th and 8th likleywill be razed and a residential tower will rise on the site (including the adjacent parking lot).

It's a shame to some degree because it's a nice old building that has all of its ornamentation in tact. With all of the crap on 8th, there are many more sites that warrant demolition ASAP.

[sfenn1117]

Here comes another boring 40 story residential. I don't know the building you're talking about but it seems like I'd rather have a neighborhood pub than another Staples or Starbucks on the ground floor.

[londonlawyer]

It's a building that's painted a light burgundy color and has all of its moldings and ornamentation. It will be nice to lose the parking lot, but this was a decent building. I would love to let loose with a wrecking ball with the bulk of 8th Ave., but this is one of the buildings I would have saved.

[krulltime]

Can't remeber seeing that pub... but restaurant row is along 46th between 8th and 9th.

My favorite expensive restaurant there is 'ORSO'... Yummy! :p

[lofter1]

Only one word if McHale's goes:

BUMMER

This is one of the great joints in Times Square. No BS. Great Burgers. Great Beer. Great Neon.

SAVE McHALE'S

http://www.lightningfield.com/2004/11/261.jpg

more pics:

http://www.lightningfield.com/2004/11/2611_mchales_manhattan.html

[lofter1]

Building's Sale Threatens Times Sq. Tavern
By JENNIFER 8. LEE (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=JENNIFER 8. LEE&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=JENNIFER 8. LEE&inline=nyt-per)
Published: September 1, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/01/nyregion/01bar.html


Over the decades, McHale's bar, at 46th Street and Eighth Avenue, has been something of a shared secret.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/09/01/nyregion/01bar650.jpg
Diane Bondareff for The New York Times

The rumors began lazily drifting about in the August heat. Customers wandered into McHale's pub near Times Square, surprised. "We heard you guys were closed," they exclaimed.

One patron called because he had seen a posting on the Internet that said McHale's was closed. The waitress who answered said, on the contrary, the bar was still very much open.

Jimmy McHale, whose family has owned the bar for more than 50 years, heard the rumors through members of his softball team who work in the theater industry.

Then, a few weeks ago, workmen showed up in front of the bar, on the corner of West 46th Street and Eighth Avenue, and started taking measurements. "They were digging to see how far they could go down to see how far they could go up," said Mr. McHale, 48, who added that he has heard that condominiums are planned.

The building was sold in February, according to city records, and earlier this month Mr. McHale received a 30-day notice to vacate. His lawyer told him not to take it too seriously, he said. He has no formal lease, just "a handshake type of thing," he said. For now, at least, the fate of McHale's, which has aged into a Times Square icon over the last half century, is a mystery. The new owners, the 46th Street Development Corporation of Parsippany, N.J., which also owns the adjoining property, did not return telephone calls yesterday seeking comment on plans for the McHale's building.

The Department of City Planning, which approves development plans, said yesterday that no paperwork had been filed for the lot that includes McHale's.

Mr. McHale said he was unaware that the building had even been sold, because he is still paying rent to the same landlord he has had for years. An employee of the former landlord, G & C Realty Corporation, said the company was simply collecting money for the new one. McHale's is the type of establishment that chains like TGI Friday's and Bennigan's try to emulate. But authentically aged charm is hard to reproduce from corporate headquarters.

In a city of $15 cosmopolitans, McHale's sells $4 pints of beer and Ketel One and tonic for $4.50. The burgers are so thick that they crumble under their own weight.

With its darkened windows and aging neon lights, the restaurant is invisible to all except those who already know it, a shared secret for the stagehands, neighborhood regulars and the khaki-clad types who work at Viacom and Morgan Stanley in Times Square. Its intimacy embraces newcomers, taking some by surprise. "I walked in the other day, and they're like, 'Hey, Brian, what do you want?' and I'm like, 'What? You know my name?' " said Brian Silverman, 29, a guitarist on "Movin' Out," playing across the street.

The pub is an oasis that has so far escaped the sweep of Times Square development. "Times Square should change with the times, but I think it's become too commercial and too Disney World," said Tyler Miller, 32, a messenger who has been coming to McHale's for six years. "It's nice to have something from the past."

The bar still has some original windows from the days when it was called the Gaiety Cafe. The wooden bar is from the 1939 World's Fair. The blinds were installed for an American Express commercial with Jerry Seinfeld that was shot two years ago.

Mr. McHale, whose father bought the business in 1953, shrugs. He has a fatalist's view on change. "Things you have no control over, you can't be beat up with," he said. "You wouldn't be a happy person."

The bar is very much a part of his identity. "For me, this is my living room," said Mr. McHale, who lives on West 45th Street in the same apartment he grew up in (rent controlled, of course).

In the meantime, no one knows exactly what will happen when. "We're all in limbo," said Michelle Scarpa, 30, who has worked at McHale's for six years. "There is enough luck and guardian angels around this place that it will last a lot longer than anyone thinks."

[lofter1]

More shots of McHales: http://whatisee.org/mt/archives/entries/000826.html

And info at Curbed: http://www.curbed.com/archives/2005/11/29/mchales_to_close_leaving_scalpers_on_the_street.ph p

[kliq6]

Good Times at that place lofter for sure, been there alot

[lofter1]

Can't Get a Beer Anymore,
but Soon You Can Get a Condo

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/01/22/nyregion/22mchales.xlarge1.jpg
Richard Perry/The New York Times
Jimmy McHale plans to lock up McHale's for good Sunday.
His family has owned the bar, on West 46th Street in Midtown, since 1953.
The building was bought last winter by the 46th Street Development Corporation.

By ALAN FEUER (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=ALAN FEUER&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=ALAN FEUER&inline=nyt-per)
New York Times
January 22, 2006
Midtown Journal

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/nyregion/22mchales.html


Jimmy McHale stood there with his arms crossed. He frowned. Everything was gone.

His stools were gone, his tables were gone, his beer tap gone. In the place where his long oak bar once stood, a patch of sunlight rested on the floor.
"Once you get the altar out, the church seems kind of empty, doesn't it?" he asked. "Yep, we took the soul out of the place."

The end has finally come for McHale's, the beer and burger spot at West 46th Street and Eighth Avenue in Midtown, which Mr. McHale and his family have owned since 1953.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/01/21/nyregion/22mchales.1842.jpg
Richard Perry/The New York Times

For more than half a century, its neon sign was a beacon to the barflies of the Great White Way, but after a final curtain call on Monday night, it was time to strike the set.

A crew of stagehands from Local 1 of the theatrical workers' union descended on the place last week to haul out the air-conditioners and pry the dusty moldings off the walls.

Then, as if it were a yard sale, the place went out the door.

"Everybody, take a little piece," said Theresa Malamud, Mr. McHale's first cousin on his mother's side. "You want a booth, take a booth. You want a table, take a table."

In the dusty darkness, a half-dozen regulars stood considering the junk.

The place was a wreck - an ignominious end for an establishment that James McHale Sr. bought after serving in World War II, when it was still known as the Gaiety Cafe. The elder Mr. McHale went on to suffer through the 1970's and 80's, when Times Square was a low-rent district of cardsharps and cutthroats, and it was tough to draw a crowd.

"Mom and Dad did all the hard work," said Jimmy Jr., 49, who claims to have first set foot in the bar when he was 3 days old.

"When people went to Broadway shows back then, they ran to their cars."
Now the times have changed, and Midtown is fertile ground. Bars are dying off - J. R.'s, on 46th Street, in July; Barrymore's, on 45th, later this month - and the real-estate concerns are moving in.

Mr. McHale's building was bought last winter by a company called the 46th Street Development Corporation, which plans to build a condominium, he said.

There was no response to phone calls made on Friday to the company's office in Parsippany, N.J., to inquire about its plans.

Nonetheless, the news sent chills through the drinking class of Broadway.
"We're running out joints - they all keep closing," said Willie Walters, a union stagehand who was helping disassemble McHale's the other day.

At Barrymore's, the sense of despair was much the same.

"There's always Joe Allen's and Angus McIndoe's," said Bill McCauley, an actor in for a midday sniff.

McHale's provided an old-time drinking experience in an ever-modernizing neighborhood. There was the old dark wood interior, the hockey and baseball memorabilia, the buzz and glow of neon and some of the biggest burgers in the city, made by Italo Huaringa, the Peruvian cook who worked in a warrenlike basement there for 35 years.

Mr. McHale still hopes to revive the place and is scouting out locations. He has put the bar in storage in New Jersey and allowed his friends and relatives to take home certain items on a temporary loan.

His cousin-in-law, Marc Malamud, walked off with an air-conditioning unit and a few unopened bottles (not to be returned). Charlie Redmond, a bellman at the Edison Hotel, took home a window and the ice-skate sharpener the cooks employ to hone their blades.

John Wright, a regular, was still considering his choice of souvenir. Mr. Wright is a lank, cadaverous man approaching 80 who has been drinking at McHale's since Dwight D. Eisenhower's (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/e/dwight_david_eisenhower/index.html?inline=nyt-per) day.

Fifteen years ago, the management imposed a rule: He could have only six drinks in a year. He takes one for the Tony Awards, another at the New Year, three on certain birthday celebrations and reserves a "floater drink," which he used at the McHale's farewell last week.

Then there was Mr. McHale himself, who plans to lock the door for good today. What would he be taking home to his apartment?

Nothing much, he said. "My apartment is just where I sleep - this is my house."

Copyright 2006 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html)The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[londonlawyer]

It's a shame because, with all of the dilapidated buildings on 8th Avenue, this one is quite nice. I hope (but I doubt) that it's a full block development that includes the run-down building just north of the empty lot. Unlike the McHale's building, that piece of crap deserves a date with the wrecking ball.

[Derek2k3]

Here comes another boring 40 story residential. I don't know the building you're talking about but it seems like I'd rather have a neighborhood pub than another Staples or Starbucks on the ground floor.
Bingo. I wish they would just buy the air rights and build a taller tower on the adjacent parking lot.


247 West 46th Street
750-754 Eighth Avenue
39 stories 450 feet
Costas Kondylis & Partners, LLP
46th Street Development Corporation
Residential Condominiums
187 units 300,848 Sq. Ft.
Proposed

New Building Permit (http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/JobDetailsServlet?requestid=2&allisn=0001196549&allboroughname=&allnumbhous=&allstrt=&s=DCB051D04D4345256F48D12433631AE6)

[londonlawyer]

Bingo. I wish they would just buy the air rights and build a taller tower on the adjacent parking lot.


247 West 46th Street
750-754 Eighth Avenue
39 stories 450 feet
Costas Kondylis & Partners, LLP
46th Street Development Corporation
Residential Condominiums
187 units 300,848 Sq. Ft.
Proposed

New Building Permit (http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/JobDetailsServlet?requestid=2&allisn=0001196549&allboroughname=&allnumbhous=&allstrt=&s=DCB051D04D4345256F48D12433631AE6)

I think that, at the very least, the adjacent lot is part of this project. (I recall reading this from the NY Times' article in Sept.) I genuinely hope that the building north of the lot with the China Club is also part of this project. I wonder how many lots are covered by the address 750-754 Eighth Avenue.

Anyway, losing a nice building like McHale's is a shame. However, losing a nice building while, at the same time, keeping an eyesore is a real kick in the nuts.

[lofter1]

The description of the property on the DOB permit shows that the site is basically two over-lapping squares:

The first is 120' x 175' (the McHale's site and apparently the parking lot with 120' of frontage along 8th Ave.)

The second is 100' x 100' -- it sits to the NE of the above plot and overlaps the McHales site by a 25' square (and apparently fronts onto the south side of 47th St. east of the China Club building).

The China Club building appears NOT to be a part of this site, but the new building will seemingly wrap around it.

From DOB ... (get out your pencils and your graph paper)

Metes and Bounds:

Street Status: PUBLIC - LEGAL WIDTH 60

Beginning at a point on the NORTH side of WEST 46TH STREET EAST of the corner formed by the intersection of WEST 46TH STREET and 8TH AVENUE:
RUNNING THENCE E 125 FT.
THENCE N 100.42 FT.
RUNNING THENCE E 75 FT.
THENCE N 100.42 FT.
RUNNING THENCE W 100 FT.
THENCE S 80.42 FT.
RUNNING THENCE W 100 FT.
THENCE S 120.42 FT.

[londonlawyer]

Thanks for the info, Lofter. Does anyone else think that it sucks to lose a nice building -- let alone on a street with so much crap. Consider that hideous building across the street with the Bennegins and the crappy yellow and orange one with the NY Tours. They should be torn down.

[lofter1]

^ Perhaps this portends what you wish for ...

Hells Kitchen Bennigans lasted 15 months

http://whatisee.org/mt/archives/images/bennigans-closed.jpg

http://whatisee.org/mt/archives/entries/000883.html

Bennigans opened in September 2004 with a lot of noise.
At the time, I thought it was contributing to the Mallification of Manhattan (http://whatisee.org/mt/archives/entries/000337.html).
Just over a year later, it seems no one liked it, and it has closed.
No loss for the neighborhood.
There are plenty of better options for both food and drink nearby.

Posted by whatisee | TrackBack (http://whatisee.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=883)

Comments

Houlihan's on 49th and 7th has closed too, so maybe there is still hope.

[londonlawyer]

Thanks for the info. I walked by Bennigan's at lunch time and noticed that it is closed. Hopefully, a developer bought that dump to redevelop it, and we can only hope that the yellow and orange slum next to it with the NY Lines and the B.K. will be razed too.

PS: Here's an article re: the sale of the Bennigan's dump from the 5/25/05 edition of The NY Times:

SQUARE FEET; TRANSACTIONS
By JOHN HOLUSHA
Published: May 25, 2005

Recent Sale

$11.75 million

771-773 Eighth Avenue
at the corner of 47th Street

Manhattan
This is a two-story 13,500-square-foot building occupied by Bennigan's restaurant.

Buyer: Lloyd Goldman
Seller: New Rock Asset Partners
Broker: Brian Ezratty, Eastern Consolidated
JOHN HOLUSHA

[lofter1]

The description of the property on the DOB permit shows that the site is basically two over-lapping squares...

Some clarification on my previous post ( http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=80163&postcount=13 ):
The NE portion of the site is where the Brooks Atkinson Theatre is situated (and where "The Odd Couple" is currently playing). Apparently the reason that plot is included in the McHales' tower site is due to air rights that were transferred. Therefore the actual building plot consists only of the McHale's building and the parking lot just to the north of that.

[londonlawyer]

It appears that several buildings on the southeast corner of 48th and 8th (just south of McHale's) might be demolished. Several storefronts are empty and shuttered. It would be a shame to lose these buildings because they're in nice shape and have all of their ornamentation just like McHale's did.

Not to sound like a broken record, but I really find it disheartening to see old buildings with a lot of character demolished while absolute crap is not touched. As an example, the building with the China Club just north of McHale's is an utter eyesore, as are the buildings with the Benigins and the NY Tours, and the buildings near 56th and 8th with the McDonald's and Wendys. Nonetheless, there are no plans at the moment to demolish them.

[stache]

Where will the stagehands drink?

[antinimby]

If the developer is smart, he'll bring the bar back into the new building's retail space instead of some streetlife-zapping bank branch or pharmacy.

As I have said before in another thread, this formula of bringing back popular or successful businesses displaced by the new development has a myriad of benefits to the developer, not the least being that it creates a better image for the developer and developments in general, in the eyes of the community.

[MidtownGuy]

streetlife-zapping bank branch or pharmacy.

AMEN! So tired of all these soulless bank branches. When I saw the bank move in at the new Astor Place condos I had to retch.

[Peteynyc1]

any artist renderings released on this one?

[lofter1]

The McHales building is covered in scaffolding / protective fabric (Christo would have done a more interesting job, IMO).

The old McHales sign is still on the building -- hoping someone will salvage it.

The building across the street with the empty storefronts (740 8th Ave.) didn't renew the lease for liquor store that had been there since forever, so you know they're serious about a change.

DOB records ( http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/PropertyProfileOverviewServlet?boro=1&houseno=740&street=8th+avenue&requestid=0&s=A03C41B885B461E4F46BD08866A7430E ) show that it is a "hotel" and "SRO" (Single Room Occupancy). That could throw a wrench in the works of demolition.

Whatever -- it certainly looks as though this old TS classic is not long for this world.

[londonlawyer]

The McHales building is covered in scaffolding / protective fabric (Christo would have done a more interesting job, IMO).

The old McHales sign is still on the building -- hoping someone will salvage it.

The building across the street with the empty storefronts (740 8th Ave.) didn't renew the lease for liquor store that had been there since forever, so you know they're serious about a change.

DOB records ( http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/PropertyProfileOverviewServlet?boro=1&houseno=740&street=8th+avenue&requestid=0&s=A03C41B885B461E4F46BD08866A7430E ) show that it is a "hotel" and "SRO" (Single Room Occupancy). That could throw a wrench in the works of demolition.

Whatever -- it certainly looks as though this old TS classic is not long for this world.

The hotel/SRO is the only occupied entity on the site. I hope that these buildings are not razed, but I am not optimistic.

[ablarc]

Another sad moment for New York. We're losing characterful mid-echelon buildings at an alarming rate; a new Dark Ages is descending on the preservation scene.

No Penn Station yet (or ever again, I'm sure), but this midlevel has in its own way as much to do with New York's character, and it's going fast. The Automat, the beaux-arts townhouses, the East River power plant, 2 Columbus Circle and McHale's are or were all New York icons.Those folks at Landmarks are either corrupt or stupid (probably both). They are worse than useless because they are occupying positions that could be held by others who would do the job they're supposed to be doing. Phooey.

http://66.230.220.70/images/post/mchales/1.jpg

This sign is probably grandfathered. Does anyone know for sure if it could legally be built and placed from scratch as a new sign exactly as it is (cleaned up of course) and where it is --under the existing regulations?

.

[londonlawyer]

Another sad moment for New York. We're losing characterful mid-echelon buildings at an alarming rate; a new Dark Ages is descending on the preservation scene.

No Penn Station yet (or ever again, I'm sure), but this midlevel has in its own way as much to do with New York's character, and it's going fast. The Automat, the beaux-arts townhouses, the East River power plant, 2 Columbus Circle and McHale's are or were all New York icons.Those folks at Landmarks are either corrupt or stupid (probably both). They are worse than useless because they are occupying positions that could be held by others who would do the job they're supposed to be doing. Phooey.

.

I agree with you.

PS: Let's not forget The Drake and the YMCA which those SOBs Macklowe and Rosen are raping and murdering.

PPS: And the buildings on 72nd and B'way and the nice one on 30th and 6th which was just sold along with some crap.

[ablarc]

Big shame about the Drake; every other building in this photo is new and dull.

http://66.230.220.70/images/post/drake/1.jpg

You'd think they could convert it to condos without tearing it down.

[lofter1]

This sign [ McHales ] is probably grandfathered. Does anyone know for sure if it could legally be built and placed from scratch as a new sign exactly as it is (cleaned up of course) and where it is --under the existing regulations?

Zoning regs in TS area are very pro-signage -- particulary regarding illuminated signs. Seeing as how so much of the new signage consists merely of huge sheets of vinyl-type material with lights shining onto them (rather than your classic "white way" lit-by-bulbs signs) the return of this classic neon beauty should be encouraged in every way.

[ablarc]

Zoning regs in TS area are very pro-signage -- particulary regarding illuminated signs. Seeing as how so much of the new signage consists merely of huge sheets of vinyl-type material with lights shining onto them (rather than your classic "white way" lit-by-bulbs signs) the return of this classic neon beauty should be encouraged in every way.
In other words, you don't know. Neither do I; I agree with all your sentiments and observations, however.

[MidtownGuy]

This is very, very sad.

Londonlawyer, I agree so wholeheartedly with you.
Will New York even have any of these alehouses left soon? I wish new buildings were being designed with retail spaces that more traditional NYC businesses could occupy.
I better start taking my camera everywhere with me- places like McHales are an endangered species and need to be documented.

[londonlawyer]

This is very, very sad.

Londonlawyer, I agree so wholeheartedly with you.
Will New York even have any of these alehouses left soon? I wish new buildings were being designed with retail spaces that more traditional NYC businesses could occupy.
I better start taking my camera everywhere with me- places like McHales are an endangered species and need to be documented.

This development truly blows, amigo. This is sad news indeed.

[lofter1]

This is very, very sad.

Will New York even have any of these alehouses left soon?
Sadly, not the old gnarly ones ...

But undoubtedly there will be plenty of new-fangled pseudo-European "pubs" such as these that now line 8th Ave. north of 42nd St.:

46th St.: http://kevinstjames.com

48th St.: http://www.socialbarnyc.com

51st St.: http://miniditoonline.com

Here's a whole list of bars in the area: http://hellskitchen.bz/restaurantsbarsprint/bars.shtml

(I won't tell you where the good ones are ;) )

[LeCom]

[size=6]http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/09/01/nyregion/01bar650.jpg

Looks very New Jersey.

[ablarc]

(I won't tell you where the good ones are ;) )
Do they have dancing girls?

[lofter1]

Nope -- but you might try here: http://www.exoticdancecentral.com/id42.html

[Stern]

Smiths bar is featured in the opening of Night Court, a great TV Sitcom from the 1980's.

[antinimby]

"Historic" first transfer of air-rights in Theater District debated 04-APR-06

http://www.cityrealty.com/graphics/uploads/1144178685_eighth750.gif


In a rather thrilling and almost gladiatorial bout, the land-use committees of Community Boards 4 and 5 last night considered a request for comment from a developer wishing to use air-rights in the theater district for a new residential condominium tower on the northeast corner of Eighth Avenue and 46th Street.
After an impassioned, two-hour meeting on the request, the committees decided to not endorse the project on procedural rather than qualitative grounds and began to draft a resolution outlining their concerns to the City Planning Commission.

Anna Levin, the chairperson of the land-use committee of Community Board 4, chaired the meeting and stated that while the committee was very supportive of the general outlines of the proposed building and transfer of air-rights, it believed that the entire plan should be presented rather than one part and that important issues remained to be resolved regarded a fund set up to manage funds contributed by developers using air rights from the theater district and that concerns about the relocation of theatrical organizations evicted for new projects using the air rights should be addressed.

Paul Selver of the law firm of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel represented the developer, SJP Residential Properties of Parsipanny, N.J., of which Stephen J. Pozycki and Allen F. Goldman are principals, of the planned building at 750 Eighth Avenue on the former site of a building that housed McHale’s restaurant.

Mr. Selver said the application was “an historic occasion” as it was the first project to attempt to utilize transferable air-rights created in 1998 but on the drawing boards for “over a generation.

The proposed building is a 38-story tower with 195 apartments designed by Costas Kondylis that would use air rights from the Al Hirschfeld Theater (formerly the Martin Beck Theater) on 45th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues as well as air rights from the Brooks Atkinson Theater on West 47th Street.

Under questioning, Mr. Selver indicated that while the developer was seeking approval initially only for the “discrete” application before the committees, it had larger plans. Those plans included seeking a zoning text-change to permit the transfer of other air-rights from a theater on 47th Street that would enlarge the building at 750 Eighth Avenue to 42 stories and 220 apartments.

As part of the special district’s air-rights transfer requirements, the developer would contribute $10 per square foot of transferred air rights into a special theater district fund.

Joe Restuccia, the executive director of the Clinton Housing Development Company, suggested that the rate of $10 was perhaps too low as it was set in 1998 and that the market has changed.

Jack Goldstein, a former executive director of Save The Theaters Inc., and the Theater Development Fund, argued that the transfer of air rights should not be permitted until the special fund was created and its purposes clarified. He noted that originally the fund was intended to help finance theatrical productions, but is now apparently being planned to finance theatrical education in the city’s school system.

Representatives of the New Perspectives Theater claimed that it had been evicted from the McHale’s building without any relocation assistance despite assurances to the community board from some local politicians that such assistance would be forthcoming.

Mr. Restuccia suggested that the developer withdraw his application so that the “entire package” could be addressed and resubmitted, but Mr. Selver said “no.”

Val Libin, production director of Jujamcyn Theaters, the owner of the Al Hirschfeld Theater, stressed his organization’s desire to preserve and promote “legitimate theater” in the city.

Mr. Selver indicated that “there is another site” on Broadway at 54th Street that is likely to soon seek to use air-rights from a theater to develop a residential tower.

www.cityrealty.com

[MidtownGuy]

I can't take any more Kondylis buildings. The guy's filling up the place with dumb designs.

[antinimby]

You said it!
I thought he turned the corner with the Remy, but with this as his latest offering, I can't help but want to cry. If we're going to spiffy up the 8th, we at least should go all out with showcase-like beauty, drop dead gorgeous architecture, but sadly, that will not be the case.

[lofter1]

Sam's, Longtime Theatre District Hangout, Shuts Doors April 20

By Robert Simonson
playbill.com (http://www.playbill.com/news/article/print/99213.html)
April 21, 2006

Sam's, a bar and restaurant on West 45th Street near Eighth Avenue that was popular with theatre professionals, closed for good on April 20, becoming the latest theatre district watering hole to be driven under by the soaring New York real estate market.

Responding to a sandwich board on the sidewalk that said "Sam's last night. Come in and have one last beer," a group of stage workers gathered a few deep at the bar of the modest eatery, whose arches of exposed brick, Christmas lights and nightly piano music made it a cozy place to gather after a performance.

Sam's is the fourth low-slung, old-time theatre mecca to shutter in the West 40s in the past year. JR's, on the south side of W. 46th Street near Eighth Avenue, ceased operations in July 2005. Its neighbor across the street, McHale's, ended a 50-year run in the same location in January of this year. And Barrymore's, Sam's next-door neighbor, served its last drink soon after.

The closure of Sam's and Barrymore's, as well as that of a storefront that lies between them, has lent the northwestern half of the block a boarded-up, depressed attitude that sits in stark contrast with the rest of the strip, which boasts several theatres and is one of the most vibrant sections of the Broadway district. A sign on what was once Barrymore's bears the forlorn message: "Closed forever. Thanks to all."

No plans for the spaces occupied by JR's, Sam's, and Barrymore's have been announced, but it is expected that a high-rise hotel will take their place.

Copyright © 2002 Playbill, Inc.

[londonlawyer]

There also was an article in The NY Sun on April 21st stating that new towers will rise on the west side of 8th at both 47th and 48th Streets. This is great news.

[lofter1]

So that is 5 new towers along that stretch of 8th Avenue (Google MAP (http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=301+w.46th+st.,+new+york,+ny&t=h&om=1&ll=40.760236,-73.987545&spn=0.003527,0.010643) ) ...

1. NE corner of 45th / 8th

2. NE corner of 46th / 8th

3. NW corner of 46th / 8th

4. NW corner of 47th / 8th

5. NW corner of 48th / 8th

[Fabrizio]

No more problems opening a bank account or buying toothpaste.

[antinimby]

4. NW corner of 47th / 8th

5. NW corner of 48th / 8thI wasn't aware of these 2.

[lofter1]

News to me as well ...

But londonlawyer says there was mention of them in yesterday's NY Sun (not available online without registration :mad: )

[londonlawyer]

News to me as well ...

But londonlawyer says there was mention of them in yesterday's NY Sun (not available online without registration :mad: )

Yes. They were reported in the Sun. I truly hope that the report is accurate as these are some of the worst sites on 8th. I don't care if Duane Read and banks replace these shoddy buildings that house porn shops and filthy bodegas. This stretch of 8th is blighted (for now). I just hope that the developments referred to in the Sun occupy the entire blocks.

[londonlawyer]

Here's the article from the April 20th edition of the NY Sun. Krulltime found it.

"Condos, New Retail To Be Added to Times Square Mix"

By MICHAEL STOLER
April 20, 2006

Change is afoot at Times Square, the city's iconic neighborhood that now covers an area from Sixth Avenue to Ninth Avenue and 39th Street to 52nd Street.

Before the end of the month, Boston Properties, which owns 5 Times Square, is expected to announce the winning bidder for the 37-story, 1.1 million square-foot office tower that is leased to Ernest & Young. The winning bidder is expected to be Dubai-based Istithmar, which last week agreed to pay about $600 million for the 40-story, 905,000-square-foot office tower at 450 Lexington Ave., which is subject to a 99-year land lease, industry sources say. The seller is a joint venture of Murray Hill Properties, Westbrook Partners, and the Canadian pension plan SITQ.

In May 2002, what was then the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen opted out of its agreement to occupy space in Times Square Tower, the 48-story, 1.2 million-square-foot building at 7 Times Square and Broadway. A director at Cushman & Wakefield, Joanne Podell, said, "After more than three years of discussion, Ann Taylor Loft has signed a lease in the Times Square Tower. We expect the store to be profitable due to its location, hours of operation, and viability of retail in Times Square."

Directly across the street is 1466 Broadway, also known as 6 Times Square. The 15-story, 298,000-squarefoot office building, built in 1907, houses a three-level Gap store. In November 2004, SL Green Realty sold the building, built for John Jacob Astor IV, to Sitt Asset Management and Steven Sutton for $160 million. The property, at the corner of 42nd Street and Broadway, was formerly the fashionable Knickerbocker Hotel that counted as its customers celebrities such as George Cohan and Enrico Caruso. The building was renovated into showrooms and offices in 1982. At the time of the purchase, the new owners indicated they had an interest in converting the top floors into a hotel or luxury condos. Trade sources indicate that an investor from the Middle East might be the winning bidder at a price of close to $1,000 a square foot.

***

One of Manhattan's most active investors, the Moinian Group, was part of a joint venture including the Chetrit Group and Edward Minskoff, that in May 2004 paid about $121 million, or $316 a square foot, for the 42-story, 382,000-square-foot office tower at 1450 Broadway and 41st Street. In November 2005, the owners announced plans to convert the top floors of the buildings into residential condominiums. Last month, the Moinian Group and its partner, MacFarlane Partners, opened the sales office for the Atelier, a 46-story, 478-unit condo tower at 635 W. 42nd St. This building is part of the first phase of a 1.5 million-square-foot mixed-use complex. The entire project will occupy most of the city block on the north side of 42nd Street between 11th Avenue and the Hudson River. The second phase will include about 300 residential condominiums and 350 rental apartments at 605 W. 42nd St. and 11th Avenue.

The co-president of the Durst Organization, Douglas Durst, said, "I never expected the Times Square and 42nd Street corridor to evolve as a center of office, retail, and residential." Across the street from 1466 Broadway is 4 Times Square Tower, the 48-story, 1.6 million-square-foot building completed in 1999 by the Durst Organization. The office tower is leased to Conde Nast and the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Adjacent to the building is One Bryant Park, also known as the Bank of America Tower. The building is being co-developed by the Durst Organization and Bank of America.

Last month, Bank of America committed to occupying an additional 522,000 square feet of space. The deal expands the bank's occupancy to more than 77% of the space from 53%. The bank will lease about 1.63 million square feet of space, leaving about 450,000 square feet available. Mr. Durst said, "I don't think we'll have any trouble getting $100 per square feet at the top of the building. Right now we have at least 10 companies who are interested the space."

***

Last October, Equity Office Properties Trust closed on a $505 million purchase of the 41-story Verizon Building at 1095 Sixth Ave., which is across from the Bank of America Tower. Verizon kept about 200,000 square feet of the building as a condominium. Equity plans to spend about $250 million to renovate the tower. Office space is being marketed for rents of more than $1,000 a square foot.

According to industry sources, the 25-story, 227,000-square-foot Candler Building at 220 W. 42nd St. - at the heart of Times Square and home to a three-level McDonald's - is in contract to be sold. The building was built in 1912-14 as a commission from Asa Candler, a founder of the Coca-Cola Company. West of the Candler Building is the 444-room Hilton Times Square. Last month, Sunstone Hotel Investors paid $242.5 million for that property. The seller was a partnership of Forest City Ratner and Hilton Hotels, who completed the hotel in June 2000.

Contracts for about 97% of the residential condominiums have been sold at the Orion, a development of Extell Investment Management and the Carlyle Group. The 58-story, 551-unit midblock building is at 350 W. 42nd St., west of the former McGraw-Hill Building. Extell Investment Management is assembling a site at 131-139 W. 45th St., directly behind the Muse Hotel on West 46th Street, The New York Sun has been told. It plans to develop a luxury hotel on the site.

Last month, Vornado Realty Trust wrote off $6.87 million it had spent on development costs for a project at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Vornado had planned to use the air rights of the Port Authority to develop a 39-story tower atop the building on Eighth Avenue from 40th to 42nd streets.

As the Sun reported earlier this month, the Paramount Group has retained Douglas Harmon of Eastdil Secured to sell the 44-story, 1.1 million-square-foot building at 1540 Broadway, Bertelsmann's American headquarters. Based on recent purchases, the property, built in 1990, might fetch $1.1 million, or $1,000 a square foot.

A 46-story, 250-unit residential condo tower is planned for the northwest corner of Eighth Avenue and 46th Street, with addresses of 301-307 W. 46th St. and 733-763 Eighth Ave. The owner, New Jersey-based SJP Properties, originally had planned to construct an 80/20 residential rental at 750 Eighth Ave., on the northwest corner of 46th Street, which was once home to McHale's restaurant. Due to the strength of Times Square real estate, the company has decided to build a luxury residential condominium. SJP is also building a residential condominium at 45 Park Ave., on the site of the former Sheraton Russell.

On the corner of Eighth Avenue and 47th Street, a New York-based development company is planning to construct a 40-story luxury residential condominium. A third tower is planned for West 48th Street and Eighth Avenue.

A combination of factors, including creative tax subsidies and demand for more residential and office space in Times Square, has aided in the area's resurgence.


© 2006 The New York Sun, One SL, LLC.

[lofter1]

I just hope that the developments referred to in the Sun occupy the entire blocks.
Far better if they save some of the old brick buildings at the corners (cruddy as they might look now) -- a classic example of NYC re-development: a new tower next to an old brick building. They did it with PJ Clarkes and at Rockefeller Center on 6th Ave.

Unless the developers build with some style then that stretch of 8th Ave. will turn into another bleccccch string of all too dull bases with glass and metal rising above (ala 6th Ave. above 23rd).

This would be the perfect opportunity -- with so many new towers in succession -- to enliven the area with some great design.

Maybe my visit to MoMA (http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=82706&postcount=2) and the Spanish Architecture exhibit is the reason I feel optimistic.

But given the developers in play I'm not holding my breath.

[londonlawyer]

Far better if they save some of the old brick buildings at the corners (cruddy as they might look now)...

Theoretically, I agree, but the buildings there now are horrible. Sadly, the McHale's building was quite nice, and the building across the street from it on 46th and 8th that will be razed is nice (but dilapidated). It would have been nice if it were restored rather than razed, but with developers like Gershon, Rosen and Macklowe restoring nice buildings apparently is too much to ask.

[lofter1]

And having them BUILD interesting buildings -- is that too much to hope for?

[londonlawyer]

And having them BUILD interesting buildings -- is that too much to hope for?

Apparently, it is. This is particularly true when Costas is the architect du jour.

[antinimby]

Platinum
247 West 46th Street
750-754 Eighth Avenue
39 stories 450 feet
Costas Kondylis & Partners, LLP
46th Street Development Corporation
Residential Condominiums
187 units 300,848 Sq. Ft.
Proposed

http://img432.imageshack.us/img432/4209/247w467cm.jpg

[sfenn1117]

I'm still mad at the loss of the low-rises on the site. And this is the replacement?

It looks like a badly copied version of another tower going up on another corner in the same intersection. Same size, shape, and color.

[Drexel]

Looks like "The Atelier Building"...did the same archetict do both?

[antinimby]

^ Same architect, but they hardly look alike.
Atelier is wide with exposed AC vents, this one has an all-glass curtain wall.

This one looks very nice and the base looks promising (do I sense a hint of curvaceousness there?).
Trust me, you could do worst, just look one block over to the north at the SCLE eyesore that is The Biltmore.

[kurokevin]

I'm still mad at the loss of the low-rises on the site. And this is the replacement?

It looks like a badly copied version of another tower going up on another corner in the same intersection. Same size, shape, and color.

Yes, this would be a better replacement for the infamous 1960's/70's motels that plague some of this stretch. Again, I think this is another above average rendering from Costas, plus it seems to have a decorative crown, and it will block views of the bland W Tower from the West. So it seems like a win/win situation to me.

[bigkdc]

^ Same architect, but they hardly look alike.
Atelier is wide with exposed AC vents, this one has an all-glass curtain wall.

This one looks very nice and the base looks promising (do I sense a hint of curvaceousness there?).
Trust me, you could do worst, just look one block over to the north at the SCLE eyesore that is The Biltmore.

You couldn't be more on point...The Biltmore is a disaster. This looks pretty good and will definitely be an addition to that strip on 8th.

[krulltime]

It looks good to me. I love that is all glass... that area needs to break off from all that brick-a-holic state.

[lofter1]

Below is what is going up across 8th Avenue (301 (http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8863) w. 46th) --

The new building at 247 w. 46th (pic at bottom) will go where the small brick building is seen at bottom right in the 301 pic...

http://www.feganbergarchitects.com/Images/fsextbig.jpg

http://img432.imageshack.us/img432/4209/247w467cm.jpg

[Peteynyc1]

Two buildings go up around the same time on this scummy 8th Ave drag is going to make a big impact on the area. Now let me get this straight, there is a third building as well a few blocks North (48th and 8th), as listed in the article posted earlier..... Is there a 4th building also or is the eighth and 47th they are talking about one of these two?


"On the corner of Eighth Avenue and 47th Street, a New York-based development company is planning to construct a 40-story luxury residential condominium. A third tower is planned for West 48th Street and Eighth Avenue."

[kliq6]

another prime commercial site wasted on a crappy condo tower.

[lofter1]

Not zoned for commercial ...

[kliq6]

all of eigth is zoned for commercial/industrial from 35th to 59th

[BrooklynRider]

From 42nd north to 45th Eighth is zoned primarily "commercial/office" on both sides of the avenue.

North of 45th it is a combo of "mixed residential/commercial" and "commercial/office."

From 35th to 41st Eithth is primarily zoned "industrial/manufacturing" on the eastern side and "commercial/office" on the western side.

[antinimby]

another prime commercial site wasted on a crappy condo tower.We know how much you prefer commercial projects (me, too.) but that's no reason to knock this building. It's a perfectly good design (judging from that last small rendering :D). In fact, we should consider ourselves lucky if 90% of the residentials going up in this city was of this quality.

There are other sites (Times Square Plaza for one) for developers to do commercial towers, but they haven't. You can't expect people to sit around and wait for companies to build their office towers. Life goes on.

[lofter1]

Newly-enacted zoning for the special theatre district / hudson yards puts the emphasis to residential on 8th Ave above 45th.

[Peteynyc1]

The existing building on the corner NW corner is in an aggressive demolition state. I bet the digging will soon begin.

[antinimby]

The existing building on the corner NW corner is in an aggressive demolition state. I bet the digging will soon begin.That one would be 301 Forty Six (http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8863). Very exciting times on 8th right now. :rubbing hands together: :)

Pete, keep us posted.

[lofter1]

Actually the one coming down now is the former McHale's building on the NE corner of the intersection of 8th Ave / W. 46th.

[Peteynyc1]

Truly exciting times, 3 (or 4?) developments all withing a few blocks on one avenue.

Where are all the friendly neighborhood porn shops going to go? I bet those building owners just to the South of these sites can't hold out much longer.

[antinimby]

Here's a close-up of the base:

http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/5913/platinumbase2vz.jpg

No curves at the base like I had hoped for. :(

[lofter1]

From the looks of that ^ they have conceived a fairly clumsy way for this new one to meet up with the Paramount Hotel building just to the east.

[Peteynyc1]

From the looks of that ^ they have conceived a fairly clumsy way for this new one to meet up with the Paramount Hotel building just to the east.

That does seem silly and clumsy. A question comes to mind....Do todays new developments have updated rules on how large the sidewalks have to be in front of a building? Dont they get some sort of perks or the ability to build higher if they offer public space or something? I know you know Lofter, you are the master of info. ;)

[lofter1]

You ^ should be slapped for even suggesting that a developer might give up a single buildable square inch. ;)

I just dig around and look for info -- but don't know all the zoning rules.

FAR is based on the square footage of the lot (I believe this area generally has a FAR of 10 -- so if the lot was 100 x 100 then they could build 100,000 ft. sq.).

And if I'm correct there is no height limit connected to FAR in this area (although there are often zoning regs about min. street wall height, etc.).

[pianoman11686]

Walked by the site today. It looks like demolition is complete. Now all that's left to do is haul out the rubbish.

[pianoman11686]

I think the site has now been completely cleared, and they're prepping for construction. Walked by this afternoon and (luckily) had one more photo's worth of space left on the memory disk. Just to avoid confusion, since there's so much going on in the area: this is the northeast corner of 46th & 8th.

http://images1.snapfish.com/347667776%7Ffp339%3Enu%3D3247%3E4%3A5%3E9%3A%3B%3E WSNRCG%3D3233965348%3A89nu0mrj

[lofter1]

Wonder how much more time that stalwart little tree ^^ has on this earth?

[krulltime]

Hmmm... I am sure the tree is in another lot. But it will sure die. It will have a big permanent shadow upon it.

Where are the NIMBYs on the shadowing argument here? Where? http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/silly/crazy.gif

[SilentPandaesq]

No need for NIMBY's to argue about it. Just get a collection going and hire these guys.

http://www.davey.com/cgi-bin/displayContent.pl?type=section&id=472

[lofter1]

Theater District Will Get Taller, if Not Richer

NY TIMES (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/nyregion/06broadway.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin)
By PATRICK McGEEHAN
August 6, 2006

The hottest thing on Broadway these days may be the air above some of its most famous theaters.

During the city’s real estate boom, theater owners have started capitalizing on a special zoning arrangement created eight years ago that lets them sell their unused rights to add to their buildings’ height. Developers can transfer these air rights to other sites in the theater district and construct taller buildings than would otherwise be allowed.

Two pending transfers of air rights promise an added benefit that was crucial to the original approval of that arrangement: As much as $1.4 million is supposed to be set aside to help the theater community, by attracting new patrons or underwriting serious drama.

But there’s a snag. Though two developers — who are buying the air rights for more than $20 million — are ready to hand over the special payments, the city government is not prepared to accept them. It never created the fund to hold the money or the council that is supposed to oversee it. As a result, it is not clear if the theater community will ever directly benefit from the windfall.

Others, meanwhile, are maneuvering to get the money. The Board of Education has raised its hand for the first payments from developers, most of which it would use to improve auditoriums in public schools, city officials said.
Jack Goldstein, who was working for Actors’ Equity Association, a union of actors and stagehands, in 1998, when the arrangement was set up, said diverting the money to schools would violate pledges made to bolster what was then a fragile theater economy.

“There was a promise that was made to the theater community and the public, and I think it should be kept, and I think it can be,” Mr. Goldstein said.
Neighborhood leaders in the vicinity of the theater district are also wary that the money may be sent elsewhere.

“Our community has a big proportion of working actors, so we want this to go to people who actually work in and support the theater,” said J. Lee Compton, the chairman of Manhattan Community Board 4, whose territory includes one of the theaters that is selling its unused development rights.

The long-running debate about how to spend this potential stream of revenue from developers illustrates how much the theater business and the New York City real estate market have changed since the late 1990’s.

Back then, theater owners and Broadway luminaries, including Stephen Sondheim and Tony Randall, campaigned for financial aid for an ailing industry. They feared that empty theaters and a paucity of new plays signaled worsening prospects for high-quality drama.

The city’s response was to change zoning rules in 1998, allowing the owners of 25 Broadway houses to transfer their air rights anywhere within a 34-block zone north of 40th Street between Avenue of the Americas and Eighth Avenue. (Normally, air rights can be transferred only to contiguous building sites.)

To transfer development rights from a theater to a distant site, the buyers were required to pay an extra $10 per square foot on top of the regular purchase price for the air rights. The money was to be administered by a new Theater Subdistrict Council, with 20 percent to be set aside for monitoring the physical condition of the theaters. The rest was to be used to benefit the theater community by subsidizing tickets to shows for poorer city residents or by offering loans or grants to producers of serious plays.

But until this year, no theater owner had taken advantage of the air-rights provision. In the past eight years, attendance has rebounded as the public appetite has grown for serious shows like “Doubt” and “The History Boys.”
The Broadway Initiative, a theater-advocacy group Mr. Sondheim presided over, disbanded and the movement to find alternative sources of financing for plays faded out.

At the same time, demand increased for places to build apartment buildings close to Times Square. Few lots in the theater district can accommodate big buildings without a transfer of air rights. So, lately, developers have been knocking on the doors of the theater owners.

At the northeast corner of 46th Street and Eighth Avenue, a New Jersey-based builder, S.J.P. Residential, plans to erect a 42-story condominium tower on the former site of McHale’s pub. To do that, S.J.P. arranged to acquire about 140,000 square feet of air rights from two Broadway theaters, the Brooks Atkinson around the corner and the Al Hirschfeld, which is more than a block away.

The deal with the Brooks Atkinson, which is owned by the Nederlander Organization, did not fall under the special zoning rules created in 1998, but the pending purchase of the Hirschfeld’s air rights does. This week, the City Planning Commission is scheduled to vote to authorize the second of two transfers of air rights from the Hirschfeld, which is owned by Jujamcyn Theaters, to the McHale’s site.

If approved by the Planning Commission and then the City Council, the sales of the Hirschfeld’s air rights would yield about $580,000 for the Theater Subdistrict Fund. A third piece of the Hirschfeld’s air rights, along with a larger bundle of air rights from another Jujamcyn theater, the St. James, are being acquired by the developer of a site on 54th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. Combined, the transactions would produce about $1.4 million for the theater fund.

“This is a unique transaction,” said Paul Libin, producing director of Jujamcyn. “They could have come and knocked on our door earlier, but there was no reason for them to do it.” But now, he added, “There’s a boom going on in New York, and I suppose that’s why people knocked on our door.”

After these sales, whose terms Mr. Libin declined to disclose, Jujamcyn would have no significant development rights left to sell, he said. The air rights for the company’s other theaters were sold before the 1998 zoning change took effect, he said.

“Selling the air rights is all about perpetuating the Broadway theater,” Mr. Libin said.

But, he added, “circumstances have changed so dramatically” that using money from developers to finance productions now “doesn’t make any sense at all.”

Alan Eisenberg, the executive director of Actors’ Equity, noted that the original promise made in 1998 could still be met by giving the developers’ payments to the Theater Development Fund, which sells discounted play tickets to attract a broader audience.

The City Planning Department’s staff, however, favors giving most of the money expected from the special transfers — more than $1.1 million — to two programs run by the city’s Board of Education, said Edith Hsu-Chen, deputy director in the department’s Manhattan office. One, known as Arts Space, makes grants to public schools to upgrade their performance facilities. Another aims to stage summer musical productions starring public high school students.

“One of the key purposes of the theater subdistrict zoning is to develop new audiences,” Ms. Hsu-Chen said. “What better way to accomplish this than to link kids directly to Broadway as active participants?”

The school programs are pet projects of Gerald Schoenfeld, chairman of the Shubert Organization, which owns or operates 17 Broadway theaters.

Still, Meile Rockefeller, co-chairwoman of the land-use committee of Manhattan Community Board 5, said the schools proposals were “fine as a short-term remedy for a problem that caught the city unprepared.” But, she added, “It’s not a long-term solution.”

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[Peteynyc1]

A third piece of the Hirschfeld’s air rights, along with a larger bundle of air rights from another Jujamcyn theater, the St. James, are being acquired by the developer of a site on 54th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. Combined, the transactions would produce about $1.4 million for the theater fund.



Anyone have info on this project / site? Is there a thread for this location that I missed? Could this actually be the formerly owned Hearst site where the new hotel was planned on 55th instead?

[lofter1]

The mention of that site in the article is the first that I've heard of it. Notice that the Jujamacyn rep wouldn't talk about the terms of that deal.

I do business on that block on a regular basis -- there are a number of sites on the north side of that block


229 W. 54th (corner of Broadway): 2-story building at the corner of 54th / Bway -- 92' frontage on W. 54thA Butt Fugly building that should go ASAP

231 W. 54th: 6-story buidling -- 25' frontageA nice old tenement style building that houses an "adult" store

233 - 239 W. 54th: 5-story building -- 80' frontageThis one is a terrific older building mid-block that should be maintained, but it will probably go.

241 - 245 W. 54th: 4-story building with 18 Residential units -- 57' frontageMid-block -- the existing Residential units could mean this one stays.

247 - 259 W. 54th: 8-story building -- 131' frontageA 60's white brick boring box (NYS Unemployment Office here ) -- Adios ASAP

267 W. 54th (corner of 8th Ave.): 4-story building with 9 Residential units -- 25' frontageClassic 8th Ave. brick residential -- hopefully a keeper as it will maintain the quirky NYC "little building on the corner" style

The empty lot at the SW corner of 8th / W. 55th is the proposed site for a new HOTEL.

[Derek2k3]

Anyone have info on this project / site? Is there a thread for this location that I missed? Could this actually be the formerly owned Hearst site where the new hotel was planned on 55th instead?

On the NW corner of Broadway and 54th, Harry Gross of G. Holdings Corporation planned to build a 400 room Marriott with luxury condominiums above. This was announced back in 2001 so things probably have changed.
Here's one of the articles:

Commercial Property/Hotels; Offering Business Travelers Less-Fancy Quarters (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A04EFDF163BF936A25754C0A9679C8B 63)

[lofter1]

Looks like it's good for NYers that this one didn't get built -- sounds like it would have been a "Kaufman / O'Hara" type POS:


A site on the northwest corner of Broadway and 54th Street has been assembled for yet another Courtyard. ...

Although highly themed hotels have recently opened in New York ... Mr. Gross said he believes there are people who will happily give up the architectural distinction and special services of such properties in return for technically sophisticated rooms and half the price.

[Peteynyc1]

Lofter you are the MASTER! Can always count on you for a thorough investigation.

[LeCom]

Short condo tower with an bland generic design by Costas. What a waste. I'd rather have that pub sit around until a better building opportunity comes by or until I turn 21.

[lofter1]

I'd rather have that pub sit around until a better building opportunity comes by ...

Right idea -- but unfortunately McHale's is already but a memory :(


... or until I turn 21.

Don't let that stop you :cool:

[Peteynyc1]

Did McHales move over to 9th or 10th Ave?

Still no movement on the project across the street (North West block of 46th and 8th). The ground floor tenants are still in buisiness but I notice the windows on the upper floors are filled in with cynder blocks. In this softening market, I wonder if it will get built.

[lofter1]

July 20, 2006

I think the site has now been completely cleared, and they're prepping for construction ... this is the northeast corner of 46th & 8th.

http://images1.snapfish.com/347667776%7Ffp339%3Enu%3D3247%3E4%3A5%3E9%3A%3B%3E WSNRCG%3D3233965348%3A89nu0mrj
They've dug-out about 2/3 of the pit for the foundation -- currently they're using one of those big jackhammer caterpillars to knock out a lot of rock right along 8th Avenue.

The concrete for the foundation has been poured all along 47th St, along the wall of the Paramount Hotel and partially along the wall of the Brooks Atkinson Theatre to the north.

There is a little dog-leg in the property line at the NE corner where the Brooks Atkinson meets this site -- it's where you can see that tree in the background of the photo above ^^^

Today that tree was seen still growing in that corner; it appears to be on growing on the little plot of land in that dog-leg.

It will be interesting to see how long it remains ...

[lofter1]

Re: 750 8th Avenue



At the northeast corner of 46th Street and Eighth Avenue, a New Jersey-based builder, S.J.P. Residential, plans to erect a 42-story condominium tower on the former site of McHale’s pub. To do that, S.J.P. arranged to acquire about 140,000 square feet of air rights from two Broadway theaters, the Brooks Atkinson around the corner and the Al Hirschfeld, which is more than a block away.

Docs from City Planning (per Public Hearings / Reports) regarding Air Rights tranfers, etc. this building ...

***

[lofter1]

It seems that developer SJP got a break on this ... Not so sure that this fulfills the intent of the theatre provision of the Zuning rule. In reality office space is easy to come by and available at other arts related buildings (i.e.: 520 8th Avenue) -- studio / rehearsal / performance spaces are what are needed ...

Builder Agrees on Space for Theaters in Tower

NY TIMES (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/27/nyregion/27theater.html)
By PATRICK McGEEHAN
September 27, 2006

The developer of a proposed 42-story condominium tower in the theater district has agreed to set aside part of one floor as office space for nonprofit theater companies to comply with an eight-year-old zoning rule.

The agreement, which the City Planning Commission is scheduled to consider today, would be the first to require a builder to make concessions to the theater industry in exchange for rights to erect a high-rise in the district. It would provide about 3,500 square feet of office space on Eighth Avenue at below-market rent for use by a few small companies.

City officials invoked a zoning rule created in 1998 to require the New Jersey-based developer S.J.P. Residential to include a feature in the building that would enhance the theater district. Because the building that the developer tore down at the corner of 46th Street and Eighth Avenue had housed a few small performance groups, city officials demanded some replacement space.

“The city needs to grow, but it can’t grow without preserving theater space, dance space and what we’ve always had,” said Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, who negotiated the deal along with Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker. “They’re getting squeezed out by this very hot real estate market.”

The agreement is part of a complex transaction that would make use of the 1998 rule to transfer unused development rights, or air rights, from two Broadway theaters to S.J.P.’s building site. For a premium price, S.J.P. is buying air rights from the Al Hirschfeld Theater, which will allow it to add several floors to its tower.

In addition to the money going to the theater’s owners, S.J.P. is paying an additional $10 a square foot of air rights into a fund for theater development. The city government is still setting up a panel to oversee that fund, which was called for in the 1998 zoning.

When S.J.P. proposed its project, advocates of nonprofit theater pressed city officials for a large performance space they could use at little or no cost. In the end, the developer agreed to provide office space that could be shared by two or three companies, with those who lost their space in the demolition given special consideration. The rent would start at $73,500 a year, or about $21 a square foot, which is about half the going rate.

Some of those companies, however, said yesterday that they were not interested in office space without an adjacent place to rehearse or perform.

Melody Brooks, producing artistic director for the New Perspectives Theater Company, one of the displaced troupes, said, “It would literally be that we were just renting office space, and that’s not really attractive at all.”

Ms. Brooks said that her company had been paying just $3,700 a month for more than 2,000 square feet of office, rehearsal and studio space above McHale’s bar in the old building.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[lofter1]

Moderator --

What do you think about changing the title of this thread?

Perhaps "750 8th Avenue (NW Corner -- McHale's site)", or something to that effect.

With all the buildings proposed / going up in the immediate vicinity it seems the current title might not be specific enough.

[antinimby]

Good idea.
Don't forget to include the name "Platinum" in the title also.
Here's the summary I had done earlier:

Platinum
247 West 46th Street
750-754 Eighth Avenue
39 stories 450 feet
Costas Kondylis & Partners, LLP
46th Street Development Corporation
Residential Condominiums
187 units 300,848 Sq. Ft.
Proposed

http://img432.imageshack.us/img432/4209/247w467cm.jpg

[krulltime]

I agree lets change the tittle please!

[pianoman11686]

From http://cityrealty.com/new_developments:

Theater District air-rights transfer approved 27-SEP-06

The City Planning Commissioned unanimously approved today the transfer of air rights from the Al Hirschfeld Theater (formerly the Martin Beck Theater) on West 45th Street and the Brooks Atkinson Theater on West 47th Street to 750 Eighth Avenue on the northeast corner at 46th Street, the former site of McHale’s restaurant, a popular Theater District hangout.

The transfer will permit SJP Residential Properties of Parsipanny, N.J., of which Stephen J. Pozycki and Allen F. Goldman are principals, to erect a 42-story building with about 220 residential condominium apartments. The project has been named “Platinum” and will have an address of 257 West 46th Street.

It will be directly across Eighth Avenue from another new high-rise condo project at 301 West 46th Street and the two projects will significantly enhance the ambiance of the Eighth Avenue corridor in Midtown.

The project has been described as “an historic occasion” as it was the first project to attempt to utilize transferable air-rights created in 1998 but on the drawing boards for “over a generation.

At a recent Community Board 4 meeting, Paul Selver of the law firm of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel represented the developer and indicated that while the developer was seeking approval initially only for the “discrete” application of a 38-story tower before the committees, it had larger plans. Those plans included seeking a zoning text-change to permit the transfer of other air-rights from the St. James Theater on 47th Street that would enlarge the building to 42 stories and 220 apartments.

Mr. Selver told the meeting that the air-rights agreement required the theater transferring air rights to agree to maintain their property for the life of the new development and agree to maintenance inspections at least every five years and to only use their property for “legitimate theater.” The theater agreements were to be in the form of restrictive covenants that would apply to any future owners of the property.

As part of the special district’s air-rights transfer requirements, the developer would contribute $10 per square foot of transferred air rights into a special theater district fund.

The community board urged that the special fund be created quickly and that issues relating to the relocation of theatrical organizations evicted for new projects using the air rights should be addressed.

In addition to the $10-square-foot contribution to the fund, the developer has agreed to provide about 3,500 square feet of office space on Eighth Avenue at below-market rent for use by a few small theatrical companies. An article in today’s edition of The New York Times noted that “the city government is still setting up a panel to oversee that fund, which was called for in the 1998 zoning,” adding that the rent to the displaced theater companies would be about $21 a square foot, “which is about half the going rate.” “Some of those companies, however, said yesterday that they were not interested in office space without an adjacent place to rehearse or perform,” the article continued.

The new building has been designed by Costas Kondylis.

The Martin Beck Theater opened in 1924. In 1934, Katharine Cornell and Basil Rathbone starred in “Romeo and Juliet” there and in 1940, Paul Lukas starred in “Watch on the Rhine, and in 1946, the theater hosted “The Iceman Cometh” and in 1959 Paul Newman, Geraldine Page and Bruce Dern performed in “Sweet Bird of Youth.

SJP Properties is also developing a condominium apartment building at 45 Park Avenue and recently acquired the Eighth Avenue east blockfront between 41st and 42nd Street from the Milstein family for the development of a commercial tower that would be across 41st Street from The New York Times building now under construction.

[lofter1]

They were pouring concrete for the slab at the sub-basement here today -- the north 1/2 of the lot.

Now they'll be able dig out the last of the dirt at the SE corner, remove the heavy equipment and finish the foundation wall at that edge of the site.

[kliq6]

SJP will have two major projects on this Ave within one year, good for them!!!

[NYatKNIGHT]

I agree lets change the tittle please!Sorry it took so long.

[antinimby]

...and it looks like we'll have to wait a little longer still.

257 is incorrect - it doesn't exist.

247 is the correct address. ;)

[lofter1]

The foundation work here is complete ... should start putting in steel soon

***

[mrskendall1]

Does anyone know if Jimmy McHale has opened another bar or if he is going to lease space in the previous location?

[antinimby]

It would be nice to see them back in that space.

God knows we don't need another bank branch or a pharmacy there.

[krulltime]

It looks more interesting in this new rendering...


http://www.pbase.com/image/72591972.jpg

Website: http://www.platinumnyc.com/

[Thethinkingman]

I passed by the site today, and I was about to go looking for a rendering. That does look nicer than the previous rendering.

[krulltime]

http://www.pbase.com/image/72610992.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/72611009.jpg

[ramvid01]

Judging from the lot size and the area its in, this would have been better off as office space, or maybe mixed use.

[antinimby]

Here's the Before photo of this site.

From above Eighth Ave.
http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/3769/platinumcf3.jpg


From above 46th St.
http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/2166/platinum1uo4.jpg

[lofter1]

A small on-the-street crane is on site here now ...

Sorry -- no pics -- Verizon service was crapping-out :mad:

They've built plywood forms in the foundation area and are getting close to pouring the concrete supports.

[macmini]

I was reading curbed today an they were talking about the Platinum building this is the time I've seen the rendering. Not that impressed but it's better then most of the crap that Costas Kondylas designs, but the fire place in the lobby of the building looks amazing.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=140253

http://www.curbed.com/2007_01_platinum2.jpg

[ramvid01]

You mean this on the street crane lofter? ;)

http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/9913/8thaveplatinum20707st1.th.jpg (http://img73.imageshack.us/my.php?image=8thaveplatinum20707st1.jpg)

[lofter1]

No -- that's ^^^ a concrete pumper on 8th Avenue --

There's a small black crane parked on 46th just outside the foundation -- I think you can see the arm in the upper right of your photo.

[ramvid01]

No -- that's ^^^ a concrete pumper on 8th Avenue --

There's a small black crane parked on 46th just outside the foundation -- I think you can see the arm in the upper right of your photo.

Hmm, i thought the picture had that crane in view. I wish camera phones had a wider angle of vision...or maybe I should lug around the digi cam with me on Wednesday.

But yes, that black thing is the crane on the street.

[infoshare]

It looks more interesting in this new rendering...


http://www.pbase.com/image/72591972.jpg

Website: http://www.platinumnyc.com/


Eclectic modern, aka the COLLAGE AESTHETIC; a bit tacky - but not bad.

[lofter1]

What are those 4 appendages about 2/3 of the way up? Balconies?? Or Fins???

[BrooklynRider]

Those are the balconies he created for the Atelier. Now he's arranging them THIS WAY for this building. His next building will have them arranged ANOTHER way. And so on and so on, until another brick falls on his head and he thinks of something new. Anticipate said brick in 2009.

[lofter1]

The Platinum is rising above street level ...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/8th%20Avenue/7508th_06a.jpg

You can see the crane for 785 8th Avenue in the background ...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/8th%20Avenue/7508th_06b.jpg

[Peteynyc1]

The units on the North side are going to have quite a nice birds eye view looking down into Jade Terrace. :eek: Could be quite loud in the Summer months.

[lofter1]

You've got to wonder how long that little building with the JT at the SE corner of 8th / W 47th will be around.

Notice that the Platinum steps back away from that site (not much, but some) above its base.

[Front_Porch]

So what's the deal with the zoning along 8th avenue? Will the Platinum keep its north views? Its south views? For that matter, what's up with the 40s between 8th and 9th, is that massively downzoned, or will every parking lot become a high-rise.

Apologies in advance for the ignorance, it's the 'hood where I shop, but I don't to think professional thoughts about it.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

[lofter1]

No need to apologize -- only geeks like us would even care to know about zoning regs :cool:

The new zoning allows towers along both sides of 8th Avenue, even though the opposite sides of 8th Avenue are in different zoning districts. The west side of 8th is governed by the Special Clinton District regs and the east side by the Theater Sub-District regs (located between 40th and 57th Streets and Sixth and Eighth Avenues).

So north <> south views shouldn't be what people are counting on if they plan to buy along 8th Avenue.

But it's not as if every lot along 8th Avenue will be built higher -- I have a friend who has lived forever in a 6-story building on 8th Avenue in the 50s (mix of condo / RS units) and that building isn't going anywhere. Which should make folks buying north-facing units in the Link very happy.

At a point west of 8th Avenue (150' ??) the height limit drops way down and creates what City Planning has labeled a "Preservation Area". For example along W. 52nd nothing tall can be built immediately west of The Link, and if you were to draw a line along the western property line of The Link and parallel to 8th Avenue then you'd get a pretty clear picture of have far into the side streets the new tall buildings can rise along 8th Avenue.

The low rise Preservation Area continues west to and including 9th Avenue and then further west to 10th Avenue, where zoning regs again allow for taller buildings. They've also carved out some other areas for larger density / more height (ie: the Worldwide Plaza block, the area near Hearst Tower and a bunch of blocks between 10th / 11th Avenues from W. 50th north to W. 56th).

Easier to understand all this looking at maps. The 2005 Map for the Special Clinton District is below.

If you want to read up on all the arcane zoning stuff here's the text from NY City Planning: Article IX Chapter 6 (http://home2.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/zone/art09c06.pdf) (pdf file)

***

[ablarc]

What are those 4 appendages about 2/3 of the way up?
Russian Constructivism.

[lofter1]

De-constructed Constructivism?

[ablarc]

^ No, just constructed.

Gropius in Chicago:

http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/imgb/imgb3/164d.jpg

.

[lofter1]

Great building, thanks for the link.

Was that ever built?

And please send it around to any number of architect's offices in NYC so they can see how good massing works.

[Peteynyc1]

So what's the deal with the zoning along 8th avenue? Will the Platinum keep its north views? Its south views? For that matter, what's up with the 40s between 8th and 9th, is that massively downzoned, or will every parking lot become a high-rise.

Apologies in advance for the ignorance, it's the 'hood where I shop, but I don't to think professional thoughts about it.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

I was wondering the same thing when I walked by there 2 days ago and its funny you mentioned it as well. This building is on the South West corner of the block with China Club just to its North. Have we seen a rendering of the North side of this building? I hope the air rights were purchased or we may be in for another lovely blank cement wall, given todays practices. If the air rights were transfered, then the Club location would have a better chance of a long life there. Will a luxury property and a club co-exist on the same block nicely? We shall see. As far as the view to the South, the block South has some small (and rather nice) buildings and could unfortunately be prime targets for redevelopment (destruction), given their size and prime location. No signs of anything yet such as boarded up windows, but the tenants look to be easy expendable (gift shops, porn, etc).

[lofter1]

No doubt the reason we haven't seen a rendering of the north facade of the Platinum is because it will have a mostly blank wall similar to the north wall on what went up next to the Fire House between 47th / 48th.

The block to the south is getting ready to come down / be redeveloped. All the little restaurants on the north side of 45th east of 8th Avenue have closed and it is reported that the nasty looking parking structure to the east of those has been sold.

[lofter1]

Here's the cruddy parking structure at mid-block on W. 45th between 8th / TS and one block south of the Platinum that supposedly has sold. Reportedly this would become part of a parcel that runs all the way to 8th Avenue and takes up the southern half of the block ...

***

[lofter1]

And this thread (http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8863) shows what is planned to go up on W. 46th directly across 8th Avenue from the Platinum.

[Peteynyc1]

I guess the views aren't going to be so Platinum....more along the lines of dull gold.

[antinimby]

Another rendering.

Notice the newly added ground floor columns on the 46 St. side.

Not sure if it's an improvement though.

Current
http://img459.imageshack.us/img459/4579/platinumbp8.jpg


Previously
http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/5913/platinumbase2vz.jpg

[lofter1]

The space between the Platinum and the Paramount hotel (just to the east) is more apparent ... that will be where driveway into the underground garage is situated. It looks as if the two buildings do not meet at the property line along 46th Street and that the garage entry way is set back from the sidewalk.

[lofter1]

The big crane is being erected on site this weekend -- you can see the base of the crane just inside the structure on W. 46th.

And the round pillars along W. 46th have been constructed (the way the building insets where it abuts the Paramount Hotel bugs me)...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/750%208th/7508th_09h.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/750%208th/7508th_09d.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/750%208th/7508th_09b.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/750%208th/7508th_09a.jpg

[antinimby]

^ I hope there's no large gap between this and the Paramount hotel but from that pic, there appears to be one. :(

[lofter1]

It seems that there is a set-back "notch" in the W. 46th St. facade here -- about 15' deep and 20' wide and which abuts the Paramount. This area is also the entrance to the underground parking, so it might very well be a loading dock of sorts. You see this with many of the larger buildings around town -- the Viacom building has a similar set up on W. 44th west of TS, as does the building on W. 43rd directly across from the new B of A.

I can't tell yet how the Platinum in the area above the base section meets up with the Paramount -- if it actually meets it at all or if it pulls away and is a free rising tower.

[Peteynyc1]

http://shutter12.pictures.aol.com/data/pictures/07/005/36/FF/6F/B9/IqXANcC-zeH3c5a1aQYUpZaIwF9Aii9P0300.jpg

[ManhattanKnight]

To say the least. I was by that site this morning, and there were concrete trucks lined up on the west side of 8th Avenue for about 3 blocks waiting to discharge their loads.

[lofter1]

The inset section where the Platinum meets up wtth the Paramount Hotel ...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/750%208th/7508th_11a.jpg

That's one big beam there ...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/750%208th/7508th_11b.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/750%208th/7508th_11c.jpg

[antinimby]

Just as I had feared. The tower portion looks to be set back away from the Paramount, leaving a huge ugly gap.

Kondylis sucks.

[lofter1]

Almost always a tell-tale sign of something fugly to come when their renderings don't show a certain angle of a building.

[stache]

Why is the gap undesirable?

[chan_2001]

sorry . . i probably missed this. but anyone has a link for the building's website or know if the sales office is open for this building?

[antinimby]

^ The website is here (http://www.platinumnyc.com).

Why is the gap undesirable?Well for one, it will be large but not large enough to allow enough light in so it will be dark--kind of like an alley.

Second, it will expose the Paramount's blank wall, which was correctly created in anticipation of future development on the Platinum's site, but no one back then could have known that future architects would be so inept as they are now.

[Fabrizio]

Let's hope I'm wrong, but I'll bet that will be the building's underground parking entrance. Anyone know?

[lofter1]

Precisely ^^^

You can see the line of descent along the east wall of the foundation ...

***

[Fabrizio]

It's a major side street in the THEATRE district. You would want theatres and wall-to-wall bars and restaurants, small shops, maybe some sidewalk tables. Limits on traffic... or maybe the street closed-off completely. You want an environment for strolling, for meeting people, for hanging out.

No. Right next to the great old/new Paramount Hotel, we get a PARKING entrance.

Morons.

[antinimby]

Well, you know what we're going to get instead of the bars, restaurants, theatres, shops? Let me tell you.

In addition to the parking garage entrance, we're most likely going to get a great big worthless lobby and the retail space will probably be a Bank of America branch or something similar.

This city is really going to hell in a handbasket.

[stache]

Well, when you think about what was there before (a dumpy stagehand bar), I don't think the block is going to suffer a great deal from the change.

[Fabrizio]

Wha? Could any post more than Stache's above make me angry/sad/frustrated/amazed? Pleeeeease explain the mind-set here.

Stagehands are local workers. Along with the stage managers, the dressers, musicians, gypsys, standbys, ....they're the backbone of the theatre industry.... and after all, this IS the THEATRE district.

A so-called "dumpy stagehand bar" where workers can congregate is EXACTLY one of the things you would want here. NOT a parking entrance which brings increased traffic and interupts a street wall with a TUNNEL.

Stache.... you've got a bad case of suburbanitus.

[stache]

Hey Fabby, newsflash. I am a theatrical dresser (surprise!). So save the lecture on what constitutes a city person and take it back to your ivory tower. Thanks.

[BrooklynRider]

Love is in the air...:D

[Fabrizio]

Stache:

I gave my opinion as to what would be best for this block:

A bar for stagehands... OR the street wall (and side walk) delightfully interrupted by a tunnel entrance to underground parking.

I chose the bar for stagehands.

(please note: I'm not against a new building being built, I am against urban planning that allows a parking entrance there)

So, Stache, lets have a vote on it ...and then we'll see if my choice is so airy-fairy, ivy-tower, out-of-touch.

While votes are being counted:

The folks over at the Gothamist called McHales, "one of the great old school pubs in midtown".

"The bar has not only served actors and neighborhood workers (like us) for the past half century, but also been the location for bar scenes in movies like "Sleepers," "She's the One" and "Money Train" along with a Jerry Seinfeld AmEx commercial".

Gee funny they chose such a dump! I'll be interesting to see if that parking entrance gets featured in movies and Jerry Seinfeld commercials.

----

Soon to feature a Chase sign and PARKING:

http://www.gothamist.com/2005/10/02/mchales_bows_out.php

--------

[lofter1]

I talked to a project manager on site today and he said that the two stories that have gone up right next to the Paramount are all we're getting on that part of the lot ...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/750%208th/7508th_12a.jpg

The base will be 5-stories (they're up to 3 now) and then will step back on the east, south and west sides -- the tower will rise right along the property line to the north for the full height ...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/750%208th/7508th_12b.jpg

[stache]

Stache:

I gave my opinion as to what would be best for this block:

I chose the bar for stagehands.

(please note: I'm not against a new building being built, I am against urban planning that allows a parking entrance there)

So, Stache, lets have a vote on it ...and then we'll see if my choice is so airy-fairy, ivory-tower, out-of-touch.

While votes are being counted:

The folks over at the Gothamist called McHales, "one of the great old school pubs in midtown".

"The bar has not only served actors and neighborhood workers (like us) for the past half century, but also been the location for bar scenes in movies like "Sleepers," "She's the One" and "Money Train" along with a Jerry Seinfeld AmEx commercial".

Gee funny they chose such a dump! I'll be interesting to see if that parking entrance gets featured in movies and Jerry Seinfeld commercials.



First you tell me I'm suburban, now you want everyone to vote on our difference of opinion. Is this what you're like in real life??? Yikes! Do you ever drop anything or are you always this quarrelsome? And why on earth do you even care so much? Remember, you "don't even live here". WTF???

[antinimby]

Hey lofter, does that mean the north side will be blank-walled?

[lofter1]

I'd guess it will be like the north wall of the one block north -- I think it has two little windows per floor (near the central shaft of the tower).

The way that the transferring of air rights within the Theater District is structured might mean that the corner lot to the north can still grab air rights from somebody nearby and go high -- even through it is abutted on the south by the Platinum and on the east by a theater.

Since they haven't released any images of the north facade of the Platinum me fears that it will be predominately a blank wall -- as opposed to a wall with lots of windows.

Hope I'm proved wrong ...

[angnyc]

Is the sales center open yet?

[krulltime]

Is the sales center open yet?

CurbedWire: Platinum Sales;


http://www.curbed.com/2007_02_Platinum1a.jpg


Tuesday, March 27, 2007,
by Scot

MIDTOWN WEST—A few blocks uptown from its burgeoning tower cum billboard (right), the team from Platinum NYC awaits your sales inquiries. A tipster reports, "[J]ust noticed this morning that Platinum NYC has set up a sales office in the building on the corner of 50th and 8th. The space has been vacant.... forever I think. Also - I can see the building from my window. About 3 floors are up already. I have a feeling this one is going up quick!"


Copyright © 2007 Curbed

[Drexel]

Lofter had posted a previous posting on this site , showing map of 5 new towers that are going to be built along 8th Ave..how will those towers impact the views on this building? Are there any safe , unblocked views from the Platinum?

[Fabrizio]

Stache: "First you tell me I'm suburban, now you want everyone to vote on our difference of opinion."

Oh c'mon... there's a dose of humour there...immediately after calling for a vote I write: "while the votes are being counted...."

And BTW: I said you had "a bad case of suburbanitis". That's a gentle ribbing.

"Do you ever drop anything or are you always this quarrelsome?"

Rather than making it about me, about how I am "in real life", if I'm "always this quarrelsome" address the issue.

And again, way out of line, you write: "And why on earth do you even care so much? Remember, you "don't even live here". WTF???"

Uh...where's "here"? If you're talking about NYC, most of the posters at NYWired don't live "here".

[bizzan]

I certainly hope that's not the case. Was at the Platinum sales office and went into contract -- and now I find out that another building is going up on the west side of 8th Ave at 46th!?

Is that condo on 8th Ave between 45th and 46th? Meaning, will it be an obstruction to western exposure from Platinum?

Lofter had posted a previous posting on this site , showing map of 5 new towers that are going to be built along 8th Ave..how will those towers impact the views on this building? Are there any safe , unblocked views from the Platinum?

[stache]

Fabby you' re not worth responding to since you always want to draw everything out endlessly on a point by point basis. That's all I have to say. Thanks -

[Fabrizio]

I'm quarrelsome, can't seem to drop anything; I'm one of those guys that wants to draw everything out endlessly on a point by point basis, but I also like long walks on the beach, candle light dinners for two and gazing up at the stars on cloudy nights.

----------

Now that corner of 46th and 8th will house a condo that replaces McHales, I'm wondering what will happen at the corner of 45th and 8th home to another historic place: Frankie&Johnny's:

http://lostnewyorkcity.blogspot.com/2006/05/knockin-on-frankie-johnnys-door.html

http://www.frankieandjohnnies.com/html/skipintro.html




---

[NYC-JR]

I certainly hope that's not the case. Was at the Platinum sales office and went into contract -- and now I find out that another building is going up on the west side of 8th Ave at 46th!?

Is that condo on 8th Ave between 45th and 46th? Meaning, will it be an obstruction to western exposure from Platinum?

There will be a 40 story + condo built directly across the street on north west corner of 8th avenue and 46th and another building is going up on the south side on 8th Ave bewteen 45 and 46th. I was at the sales office and this building has will not have many views, althopugh finishes are nice.

No air rights were purchased so there will be no liong term views.

East - you face the Paramount wall for atleast 20 floors
West - you will face the new building for all 40 floors
South - you will have somewhat of a view, but will face another new building
North - You face the biltmore for all 40 + floors

[Peteynyc1]

If I could wait, I would wait for this one on the West side of the street. It seems to be stalled out though and would be quite a long wait (extra year). The views from the North West corner of Platinum out to the North West should be pretty decent. Isnt the block to the North of this the block with the Sliver? Nothing else will go up on that block for quite a while and you would get a decent view out that way. I have a "city view" that I am quite happy with. So long as you arent facing a blank brick wall 15 feet away, or some ugly (chang) hotel.

http://www.feganbergarchitects.com/Images/fsextbig.jpg

[bizzan]

Then I wonder if the property value of Platinum will hold considering the general surplus of condos on the market. Now there'll be another 500+ condo units within a one block radius with these 3 goliath buildings going up. Of course, the views are torched with the addition of the new high rises.

I had no idea Platinum didn't purchase the air rights. Interesting.

If I could wait, I would wait for this one on the West side of the street. It seems to be stalled out though and would be quite a long wait (extra year). The views from the North West corner of Platinum out to the North West should be pretty decent. Isnt the block to the North of this the block with the Sliver? Nothing else will go up on that block for quite a while and you would get a decent view out that way. I have a "city view" that I am quite happy with. So long as you arent facing a blank brick wall 15 feet away, or some ugly (chang) hotel.

http://www.feganbergarchitects.com/Images/fsextbig.jpg

[Drexel]

does the building across the street to the west of the Platinum have its own thread....are they still in the approval basis?

[bizzan]

Is has it's own thread I believe. I've seen renderings of the building, and they look great. The questions are: 1) when will they break ground? this year or next? That may have significant impact on whether they can obtain 421-A abatement, which will stop being granted in 12/07; 2) What will the cond