740 Eighth Ave. (@ 46th) - Related

[kliq6]

ODD COUPLE PLANS A WINNER ON EIGHTH
By STEVE CUOZZO

March 2, 2007 -- An odd-couple partnership is putting together a huge Eighth Avenue building site that can support a new office tower of up to 1 million square feet, The Post has learned.

In a rare joint venture, privately held Related, headed by Stephen Ross, and publicly traded Boston Properties, led by Mort Zuckerman, have teamed up to buy half of the east blockfront between 45th and 46th streets plus several buildings on both side streets.

The deals involve a half- dozen different sellers and are valued at a total $350 million. The deals are all in contract, but will not close until later this year.

Related and Boston are buying several small vacant tenements, a small hotel, a parking lot, an 8-story garage, and "floating" air rights harvested from other sites within the city's theater subdistrict.

The site's boundaries extend to the western wall of the Imperial Theater on 46th Street and of the Music Box on West 45th.

The fact that Related and Boston have formed a single entity to buy the 30,000 square-foot site does not necessarily mean they will stick with plans for an office tower.

"Manhattan is very unpredictable, and nothing is certain," an insider cautioned.

Nor does it mean Related and Boston will stop at the deals now on the table. Sources said they still covet five small buildings at the avenue block's south end.

Adding them would enable the developers to create an uninterrupted street wall the full length of the block.

The negotiations, conducted in secret for three years, reflect the frenzy for land on Eighth Avenue - the last frontier in central Midtown for large-scale development.

Reps for both Related and Boston declined to comment. Officials at Community Board 5, which vetted the air rights transfers, could not be reached.

Sources buzzed that Grubb & Ellis' Vincent Carrega was representing the sellers and had "engi neered" the multiple and complicated transactions, but he could not be reached yesterday.

Times Square Alli ance President Tim Tompkins said, "a de velopment of this signif icance will be another crucial building block in the redefinition of Eighth Avenue from neglected little brother to an adult that's finally come into its own."

Once grungy Eighth Avenue is in dramatic transformation. The Mid town stretch boasts the New York Times head quarters at 40th Street, Worldwide Plaza at 49th Street and the Hearst tower at 57th Street.

SJP Properties will break ground this summer on 11 Times Square, an office tower between 41st and 42nd streets. Boston Prop erties is putting the finish ing touches on an assem blage between 54th and 55th streets.

Investor-developers including Steven Witkoff have numerous development sites as well.

[londonlawyer]

I'm not too happy about this project. There are nice little buildings on this site that should be preserved. As with the McHales/SJP site, the Playpen site, BP's 55th Street site (the buildings not the parking lot), nice buildings on 8th are razed, and the junk remains. The horrible, 3 story yellow brick buildings across the street from this site should be razed, the horrible red and yellow NY Tours building should be razed, the horrible rent-controlled white brick box on the west side of 8th in the 50's should be razed, as should the Wendy's/McDonald's site....

Ross and Zuckerman are greedy, just like Rosen, Macklowe, Gershon Barnett, etc. They raze nice buildings for their own profit and have no interest in preserving charming structures.

[kliq6]

welcome to the world of a developer, they dont make money by preserving

[londonlawyer]

welcome to the world of a developer, they dont make money by preserving

New York needs to change its air rights rules, among other things, because it leads to the demolition of small structures. These guys make me sick.

[lofter1]

There have been various rumblings on different threads here about this site for some time.

This, from a NY Times article dated Jan. 28, 2007, was posted HERE:

... a 46-story, 271-unit tower on West 46th Street and Eighth Avenue built by Tribeach Holdings

And another post in the Platinum thread had discussed the possibility of a hotel on this site.

But it looks like the plans have grown.

Map below shows this site (aka 740 8th Avenue) and the Platinum site one block to the north (aka 750 8th Avenue).

Pics show the block front along 8th Ave and the parking structure on W. 45th east of 8th ...

***

[kliq6]

Thenext few projects on 8th will be office, the market is calling for it and its the best place to build large scale commercial projects that are still in Midtown. It kills me to see that we wasted a few site in the 50's on awful residential projects but finally commercial development is taking 8th! ( of course im biased as a commercial broker)

[londonlawyer]

With a little TLC, this building, and the others could be quite nice.


Thanks, Mr. Ross.

[sfenn1117]

Agreed that they are nice buildings, especially the corner building at 46th. But seeing as Hudson Yards is taking forever to get started, this office space is crucial. A few sacrifices need to be made. The buildings are nice, but are not unique. At least we get rid of that horrible garage and a parking lot as well. There's always the side streets between 8th and 9th, as well as 9th itself where these types of nice buildings will never disappear.

And eventually, the truly crappy buildings will be replaced as well. Maybe not the NY tours building anytime soon, but I can't wait til the Duane Reade at 42nd st is gone, the Wendy's and McDonalds, and any other sites.

Now, we can only hope these new buildings have a shred of architectural creativity. 11 Times Sq is ok, but I have a feeling the office tower between 54th and 55th is going to be a straight up box.

[Derek2k3]

There have been various rumblings on different threads here about this site for some time.

This, from a NY Times article dated Jan. 28, 2007, was posted HERE:

Actually, the "46-story, 271-unit tower on West 46th Street and Eighth Avenue built by Tribeach Holdings" refers to a different project across the street. The same article you posted mentions this site further on, "The Related Companies has bought a parking facility on Eighth Avenue between 45th and 46th Streets but has not finalized development plans, a company representative said."

Yea, it's getting confusing...

[londonlawyer]

There has been prior news about this particular site that BP was assembling, though I hadn't heard of Ross' invovlement before.

[krulltime]

Here is the huge footprint from the NYPost...

[lofter1]

Interesting ^^^

That shows that the five old buildings at the south end of the block are NOT part of this parcel -- and maybe will remain.

It also correctly shows the thru-block entryway to the Imperial Theater as the southwest edge of the site -- and not the west wall of the Music Box as was reported in Cuozzo's article.

[londonlawyer]

Interesting ^^^

That shows that the five old buildings at the south end of the block are NOT part of this parcel -- and maybe will remain.

It also correctly shows the thru-block entryway to the Imperial Theater as the southwest edge of the site -- and not the west wall of the Music Box as was reported in Cuozzo's article.

The article says that Ross and his cohort are trying to get the 5 buildings. I hope they fail, but I doubt they will.

[lofter1]

It doesn't seem that Mr. Ross gets on so well with cameras

[ramvid01]

The lot seems to be 200(facing 8th) by 180 feet or so, more or less 36 square feet if they get those 5 buildings.