DOB shows a new application dated 10.24.06 for a "New Building" on this site.Originally Posted by lofter1
Applicant: Paul Taylor / Stonehill and Taylor
Application states "11 stories" / 120' High / 130,714 Gross Sq. Ft
Given that the lot is ~ 100' x 100' it seems that the GSF shown on the application implies that this building will fill pretty much the entire footprint of the lot going all the way up to the full height.
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S&T are currently working on The Plaza Hotel:
From the Stonehill and Taylor website:Stonehill & Taylor, in the ongoing role of Owner's Representative, has supervised a masterplan of retrofit projects to update this world-renowned hotel
Hospitality
Stonehill & Taylor has broad hospitality experience including 5-star, transient and extended stay properties. The firm provides full design services for core-and-shell planning, and interior fit-out and furnishings. Our work includes new hotels, restorations of historic properties and retrofits of existing hotels.
The new 22-story Premier at the Millennium Broadway Hotel, executed for the Milennium-Copthorne CDL Hotel Group, is representative of Stonehill & Taylor's full service approach. The interior design was developed simultaneously with the base building architectural work, producing a unique integration that improved the design quality of the project and also shortened the project construction schedule.
This is a block-thru site to little-traveled Theatre Alley (which backs up onto Park Row across from City Hall Park). DOB shows that the address there is 8 Theatre Alley.
If you check out that site from the sidewalk along Nassau Street you'll see that it offers INCREDIBLE views over the lower-rise buildings along Park Row towards the Woolworth Building to the NW.
Google MAP
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There's a lousy, lowrise building on Park Row in front of this site. I'd love to see J&R raze it and give the Fulton Street building frontage on P/ Row. Obviously, however, this won't happen.
Some pics ...
[1] The parking lot at 79-85 Crosby where the hotel will go up (246 & 244 Lafayette at the rear)
[2] The lot and the building just to the south at Spring + Crosby (9-stories / 93')
[3] The view to the SE: 225 Lafayette
[4] Views from the to-be-built upper floors looking east (seeing from left: the new Thompson Hotel on Allen St., the New Museum on the Bowery, Thor Hotel, Williamsburg Bridge, BLUE peeking out at the right)
[5] Looking up from the east side of Lafayette towards the west where the hotel will rise over 244 & 246 Lafayette ...
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Here's a shot of a McSam rising off 6th.....one of several.
FloMa Accepts the Challenge
Friday, October 27, 2006, by Joey
Well, it's not Greenpoint, but it's impressive nonetheless. Shattering Will Femia's record of four under-construction developments in one frame, a tipster sends the above along, with footnotes:From my office window facing W 28th Street I can see 6 projects under construction, but only 5 will fit into photo frame - at an angle... (5 still beats 4) [Ed.— Talking smack!]Yes, very impressive. And, just for giggles, a bonus observation: "I wonder what's going to happen to the wholesale flower 'district' One of the owners of Paradise Plants on W 28th said the mass relocation was a 'just a rumor' that had been tossed around for years and he had no plans to relocate. New residents with dogs will have the happiest canines in town - it's like having a backyard in your front yard with real trees and grass and plants."
1. Is actually on W 29th ST
2. on W 28th ST.
3. on W 28th ST - looks like it has 2 penthouse apartments - 1 with a duplex.
4. You can just make out the construction barrier in front of the hole
where a building was demo'd on 27th Street
5. Site of Remy 101 W 27 ST
· Take the Greenpoint Challenge! [Curbed]
http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006/..._challenge.php
^The one I was referring to was circled #2, a 23 story on West 28th. After looking it up on the DOB site, project #1 is also a Mcsam, 20 stories. Even #4 is a Mcsam, a 17 story.
When will it end??
One of the McSam's as seen today on West 39th between 8th / 9th Avenues ...
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Someone must write a letter to Sam Chang (?) pleading with him to use better architecture in his buildings if he continues to build like this in Manhattan.
He is singlehandedly changing the appearance of this city for the worst.
We must wake this man up.
Any volunteers?
You think he ^^^ cares?
None of us are going to be staying in his hotels.
They'll be full of folks from out of town looking for a deal.
On the other hand, public shaming of Sam Chang might achieve something.
Methinks he is thick skinned and laughing at those of us who bemoan his "architecture" all the way to the bank.
He might not care but we don't know that, so you've got to give people a chance and not assume the worst in people.
You'd be surprise how some people don't find his buildings all that offensive, so I think he might be of that persuasion as well.
I say let him know first, and if that doesn't work than we can go to the public shaming.
According to this 2006 NYS Board of Elections Financial Disclosure Report ("Friends of Grace Meng") here's an address for Mr. Chang (same address for McSam Hotel LLC):
Sam Chang
13 Mayflower Place
Floral Park, NY 11001
There's a telephone number for Chang / McSam at that ^^^ address in this DOB document: http://nyc.gov/html/dob/downloads/excel/per052606.xls
November 2006
A very good year for hotels -- but what's next?
Analysts predict a mild slowdown in the New York City market over the next 24 months
By Jonathan Scheff
The city's hotel market, which moves to different rhythms than the residential or commercial markets, is riding toward the end of 2006 almost as steadily as it did toward the end of the record-breaking year of 2005. With double-digit growth in room rates, occupancy in the mid-to-high 80s and a growing profit margin, the hotel market looks to remain healthy for the next two to three years.
By the end of August (the most recent data available by press time), the year-to-date average room rate in Manhattan rose 11 percent, from $217 per room per night for 2005 to $241 for 2006, according to hotel advisory firm PKF Consulting. Occupancy edged down slightly, dropping 0.6 percent from 84.8 to 84.2 percent.
Year-to-date revenue per available room, or revpar, the hotel industry's barometer for profitability, rose 10.3 percent by the end of August, from $184 in 2005 to $203 in 2006.
"Our expectation is that the rest of the year will be much of the same in that occupancies will be about even with last year and rates up in that range of 10 to 15 percent," said John Fox, senior vice president of PKF Consulting.
"I'm seeing more and more new hotel development," Fox added. "Right now, I'm working on four feasibility studies for new development -- boutique, small limited-service, mid-level and full-service. [The industry] will probably add a couple thousand rooms over the next year or so."
Gains in hotel stock, of course, follow the loss of thousands of rooms to recent residential condo conversions, though that trend is slowing.
"Right now, the hot sector is in boutique hotels," said Mitchell Adelstein, president of CRG Realty, an adviser to hotel developers. He added that it's particularly hard to build a large hotel in Midtown. "You're really not seeing a lot of new developments in Midtown, just because land costs are so high that you can't make enough profit with a large, full-service hotel to justify building the rooms."
Last month, an investment firm owned by the ruling family of Dubai, Istithmar, bought the W New York Union Square hotel from the Related Companies and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide for $285 million, or around $1 million per room. That exceeds the per-room prices for landmark hotels like the Plaza and the Essex House, which each changed hands in the last two years.
Adelstein said the deal also worked out to around $1,000 per square foot. "There's no higher revenue-producing asset per square foot than a well-functioning boutique hotel. You really don't see office buildings selling for over $1,000 per square foot."
Mark Gordon, head of the international lodging group at real estate investment bank Sonnenblick-Goldman, sees profitability across the board, not just in boutique hotels. He agreed with Adelstein that "it's a great time to be a New York hotel owner. It's also a great time to be a New York hotel investor because you're buying into a rising market and the debt market is extremely supportive of New York City hotels. The lenders look at New York City hotels as great lending opportunities."
Sonnenblick-Goldman has refinanced one Times Square hotel three times within the past 13 months, Gordon said. "This trend [of refinancing] is occurring on a national basis, but it is much more extreme in New York," he said. "Revenue and average daily rate continue to increase at a rate that far outweighs operating costs."
Gordon said international investors have their eye on the city, and that his firm was working on a deal last month to sell two hotels to an Irish investment fund. "We're seeing the convergence of international capital aggressively pursuing New York hotels," he said. "New York is really viewed as the best hotel market in the world at this point."
Of course, markets are cyclical, and the boom times won't last forever. Brokers and owners place the current market at the peak of a cycle that should last at least two more years, barring unforeseeable calamity such as natural disasters or terrorism.
"Is this market going to change? Yes," said Fox. "But I think we're a couple years out until it's going to soften, and even then, the softening is going to take occupancies in the mid-80s to occupancies in the low-80s, which are still very healthy and profitable levels for New York hotels."
Several brokers said that the city's long-term efforts to promote development in the Hudson Yards area on the West Side of Manhattan, and more near-term projects like the expansion of the Javits Convention Center, will spur hotel development there.
In an encouraging development, outer-borough sites are showing up among the ranks of new projects and proposals. But even if the outer boroughs add 5,000 or 10,000 rooms in the coming years, Manhattan's 65,000 rooms still dwarf their total, Fox said.
Copyright 2003-2005 The Real Deal.
Foundation complete and starting to rise above street level ...
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Charlton Street, west of Varick ...
Steel going up.
Unfortunately Mr. Kaufman (as feared) seems to have designed a building where the majority of the structure will rise from a place set back from the street wall -- except for what is now a measly 1-story structure that comes right up to the sidewalk (note the dinky steel in the foreground) ...
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^ Zoning should prevent this kind of massing. Code needs revision.
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