Reply With QuoteWas it ever established why those restaurants failed?
'Windows' Chef Chosen for Time Warner's New Grill
By FLORENCE FABRICANT
Published: January 6, 2006
www.nytimes.com
The Time Warner Center has chosen Michael Lomonaco, the former executive chef of Windows on the World, to run a new restaurant in the space left vacant by the demise of Jean-Georges Vongerichten's V Steakhouse last month.
V was the first of the center's high-profile restaurants to fail. With the developers' inability to work out a deal with the Chicago chef Charlie Trotter, two of five restaurant spaces are empty.
The new restaurant, an American grill-style establishment yet unnamed, is to open this summer after a $3 million renovation of the 225-seat dining room, said Kenneth A. Himmel, the president of Related Urban Development, the center's retail developer. Décor that some deemed over the top at V will be redone by the designer Jeffrey Beers, Mr. Himmel said.
In selecting Mr. Lomonaco, Mr. Himmel has acquired one of the few New York chefs with no other commitments. Mr. Lomonaco, 51, who had also worked at Noche and Guastavino's, both of which closed last year, will be the operating partner but not an investor. Mr. Himmel said the chef had signed a long-term agreement, including a stipulation that he not become involved in any other restaurants for several years.
Mr. Himmel and his partners will be the full owners of the restaurant. They had equally shared ownership of V with Mr. Vongerichten and his partner, Phil Suarez.
"His vision is almost identical to mine," Mr. Himmel said of Mr. Lomonaco.
For many months Mr. Himmel had voiced his dissatisfaction with V by saying that what was needed in that location was a restaurant more like his own Grill 23 & Bar in Boston, which specializes in steaks, but also offers a variety of other main dishes, appetizers and sides in a clubby setting.
"Grill 23 is a very successful place," Mr. Lomonaco said. "It's the concept they have for this and we're in complete agreement as to the direction of the menu, with great steaks but also fish and other dishes."
Mr. Himmel said he was also close to making a final decision on who would be opening the second restaurant now that Mr. Trotter is out of the picture.
"We're off to a great start," he added.
Was it ever established why those restaurants failed?
Which one -- V steakhouse? There has only been one TWC restaurant to fail so far -- V steakhouse. The other vacant space was never filled due to some dispute.Originally Posted by Strattonport
NY Sun
2/23/06
Two Years Later, Time Warner Center Effect Apparent
Michael Stoler
People from around the world are coming to Columbus Circle, a location that was blighted for 20 years and at one point was discussed as a possible home for a Kmart and a Sports Authority. Today it is home to a mixed-use complex where retail sales are exceeding $1,200 a foot and residential condominiums sell for prices in excess of $2,700 a square foot. It is the 3.45-acre, 2.8 million-square-foot Time Warner Center, which one of its developers, Jeffrey Blau of the Related Companies, calls "the Rockefeller Center of the 21st century."
The Time Warner Center celebrated its second anniversary on February 4. Developed by Apollo Real Estate Advisors and the Related Companies, it is comprised of five condominium components with 1.1 million square feet of office space, most of which is owned by Time Warner. The residential component consists of 191 luxury condominiums. One of the condominiums is home to Jazz at Lincoln Center and owned by the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Another component includes a 504-car parking garage operated by Central Parking, a 40,000-square-foot Equinox Health Club, and the 347,000-square-foot Shops at Columbus Circle, which houses a 57,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market and restaurants 50.5% owned by the center's developers, and 49.5% owned by the MacFarlane Partners through a joint venture with the California Employees' Retirement System.The final condominium is the 252-room Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 50% owned by the developers and 50% by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.
The senior partner at Apollo Real Estate Advisors, Lee Neibart said, "Every component of the center is exceeding expectations." The retail is fueled by Whole Foods, and the hotel is far exceeding expectations. The chairman of Global Brokerage Resources at CB Richard Ellis, Stephen Siegel, said, "The center has changed the face of New York forever."
The president of Swig Equities, Kent Swig - who last year in partnership with YL Real Estate Developers and Serge Hoyda purchased the Sheffield, a residential building less than two blocks from the center - said, "The center has had the greatest influence in changing an area in the past 20 years. It has actually made Columbus Circle a circle, and brought residential, retail, and hospitality. The center is the gateway to the Upper West Side from Midtown west. Today, the region on West 57th and Eighth Avenue is a better location at West 57th and Avenue of the Americas." The center energized the neighborhood resulted in a massive number of new residential and retail developments.
***
Across from the center, on the former site of the Mayflower Hotel and adjacent lot, a joint venture of Zeckendorf Development, Goldman Sachs Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds, and an affiliate of Global Holdings are developing 15 Central Park West. The development will include 43-story and 23-story buildings with 202 units of condominium apartments between 61st and 62nd streets. On the Broadway side of the building, four floors of retail will rise. According to the trade, residential condominiums are selling at prices of more than $3,500 a square foot.
Last month, Brack Capital and Continental Equities received a building permit to start the foundation work for the Element, a 34-story glass condo tower with 198 homes. The tower will be rising on 59th Street between West End and Amsterdam avenues. Brack Capital is also involved in the conversion of two buildings on the Upper West Side. They include the conversion into residential condominiums of the classic pre-war rental building at 230 Riverside Drive and the 16-story Hotel Olcott at 27 W. 72nd St., a half block from Central Park.
The hospitality industry in the area is also booming. According to the trade, occupancy and average room rates have exceeded expectations at the Mandarin Oriental and the Hudson Hotel, which is across the street from the Time Warner Center. This summer, the Pomeranc family, which owns the Thompson Hotels, expect to complete the renovation of 6 Columbus Circle, a 90-room suite hotel across the street from the center. And last month, Madison Equities announced plans to break ground this summer for a 500-room hotel on West 55th Street and Eighth Avenue. The hotel will be next to the 46-story tower that sits atop the Hearst Magazine Building, which was built in 1928.
Later this year, the first owners are expected to move into the Hudson, an 18-story, mixed-use building at 225 W. 60th St. between West End and Amsterdam avenues. There will be 100 condominiums on the fourth to 19th floors of the tower. The first five floors will provide student housing for Lander College for Women, of Touro College.
Construction has begun on the site of the former Gasteria gas station on West End Avenue between 59th and 60th streets. On this site, Apollo is planning to construct a residential condominium building of approximately 270 units.
The first residents are expected to move in this June to a senior affordable housing rental building on the other side of the street at 33 West End Ave. The 13-story building will provide 120 seniors with affordable large studio apartments. 1221 1250 1324 1261Across from this building, a 25-story residential tower is rising on a site known as the West 61st Street apartments. A total of 211 rental units will be available at favorable rents. Twenty percent of the units, or 43 units, will be available to families earning 50% or less than the area's median income, which last year was $62,800. A total of 27% of the units, or 57 apartments, will go to individuals or families earning no more than 165% of the area median income.A total of 110 units, or 53% of the apartments, will be offered to tenants at market rates.
***
Last November, Hudson Waterfront Associates, along with Donald Trump as a limited partner, sold three residential rental buildings and approximately 14.3 acres of undeveloped land between 59th and 65th streets on the West Side rail yard to a joint venture of Gary Barnett's Extell Development Company and the Washington-based Carlyle Group. The joint venture is building the Avery, a 30-story condominium at Riverside Boulevard and 65th Street. On the Upper West Side, Extell is developing Ariel East, a 37-story, 64-unit tower at 2628 Broadway and Ariel West, a 31-story, 73-unit tower at 245 W. 99th St., and 2633 Broadway.
The Ariel West site was formerly occupied by a Gristede's store and was owned by the chairman of the Red Apple Companies, John Catsimatidis. Mr. Catsimatidis purchased the site about 20 years ago for $400,000 and sold the site last year to Extell for about $35 million. Mr. Catsimatidis and a partner own an office building at 1790 Broadway, across from the Time Warner Center. Mr. Catsimatidis told this reporter that they are marketing the site to a developer who might be willing to pay $1,200 a square foot for the site and convert the property into a residential condominium.
In December, West End Enterprises, an affiliate of LHL Realty, made a presentation to the land use committee of Community Board 7. The developer is planning to construct a residential development at 229-251 W. 60th St. and 218-240 W. 61st St. The developer plans to construct 300 market-rate rental apartments in two towers, one 27 stories high and another of 17 stories. Additionally, the developer would be constructing a nine-story tower with 41 luxury condominium apartments.
Numerous projects are being planned on the Upper West Side and close to the Time Warner Center. Properties that include office buildings, residential rental apartment houses, and former hotels are planned to be converted into residential condominiums. This area, as well as all of Manhattan, is emerging in the 21st century.
Mr. Stoler is a television broadcaster and senior vice president at First American Title Insurance Company of New York. He can be reached atmstoler@firstam.com.
New York Post
February 22, 2006
TIME WARNER BECOMING A LANDMARC
By BRADEN KEIL
It looks like the Time Warner Center has finally found someone to take over the restaurant space that Charlie Trotter vacated.
Chef Marc Murphy and his wife (of TriBeCa's Landmarc restaurant) have an agreement with the Center's developers, the Related Cos., to take the large northeast-facing raw space that chef Trotter bailed out of last year, citing escalating costs for the buildout.
Neither Murphy nor Related would return phone calls. According to our sources, Murphy will have equity in the project, which will be financed mostly by the developers, much like the deal that chef Michael Lomonaco has in the Center's former V Steakhouse space that Jean-Georges Vongerichten and partner Phil Suarez vacated in December.
Speaking of Japanese, Lindsay Lohan wasn't the only one dining at Morimoto over the weekend. Morimoto's former boss, Nobu Matsuhisa, and guests were served personally by the "Iron Chef" star. No word on what his comment card said.
Bringing a Japanese restaurant from Philadelphia to New York might not be such a stretch - Chicago is offering its own version of fine dining from the land of the rising sun.
Japonais, which has wowed the Windy City with its Far East fare since 2003, will open a branch at 111 E. 18th St. (at Park Avenue South) in late Spring.
Restaurateur Rick Wahlstedt (of Le Colonial) and Miae Lim are collaborating with designer/partner Jeffrey Beers to open the 11,350-square-foot, two-level eatery.
The menu, described as modern Japanese, will be prepared by chefs Gene Kato and Jun Ichikawa.
Copyright 2006 NYP Holdings, Inc.
Interesting. I didn't even realize there were empty restaurant spots. Good camouflage, I suppose. Per Se, the Japanese place, and the bar/lounge one on the other side looked like they filled up most of the space. Where was V?
With the Hearst emerging as a slight disappointment with its flat top, and the Times enraging many with its grey caginess, the TWC may just be the best development to scrape New York's sky this decade.
love it
In heavy snow
And then the snow eased
Nice timing. Looks like the NYC Marathon back in November.
Yup.
What exactly was going on?
Hmm..
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