btn oct 2010
TRANSCRIPT
8/2/2019 BTN Oct 2010
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Still gearing up for Act III
22 November 2010 www.TheRealDeal.com
Continued on page 86
m for
plan,
ition,
rass-
area
eet of
p con-
cono-
my, priming that area for development is
one of the biggest moves Bloomberg has
made on the development front. In May,
the Related Companies and Oxford Prop-
erties Group finally, after a year-long delay,
inked a deal to lease the air rights over the
tracks there.
At The Real Deal’s annual forum last
month, the president of Related, Jeff Blau,
said construction won’t start for at least 18
months, but that the company has gotten a
lot of “corporate interest” from those look-
ing to take 1 million square feet of space.
Because the figurative foundations for
the planned Hudson Yards development
were laid on the mayor’s watch, it “could be
the real legacy,” Arzt said.
While Hudson Yards is clear ly where
the most attention will be directed, anoth-er project that will likely get full mayoral
attention is Hunters Point South, in Long
Island City, which will be a sprawling, mul-
tiphase affordable housing development,
predicted Steven Spinola, president of the
Real Estate Board of New York, the power-
ful trade group.
In fact, it’s a sign of that project’s viabil-
ity that its first phase attracted seven bids in
September, including by AvalonBay Com-
munities, Douglaston Development and a
team made up of the Related Companies,
Phipps Houses Group and Monadnock Con-
struction. Spinola said that was far more in-
terest than expected; the city is scheduled to
select a winner by January. “It can be built
and will be built,” Spinola added.
Henry Stern, who served as parks com-
missioner under mayors Koch and Giuliani,
lauded Bloomberg for his 100 or so rezon-
ings, which affected many boroughs, espe-
cially in the face of a population that can
seem overly resistant to new construction.
“There is a lot of NIMBY-ism, and there
are also lots of BANANA people, who want
to ‘build absolutely nothing anywhere, near
anybody,’” said Stern, citing the opposition
to the Atlantic Yards development in Brook-
lyn.
But Stern, who now heads the govern-
ment watchdog group New York Civic,doesn’t see much happening, real estate-
wise, between now and 2013, when Bloom-
berg’s term ends.
“I don’t think the mayor will do much
because he’s distracted by the presidency,”
he said. “He’s becoming a national figure,
so he’s less interested in severely rocking
the boat.”
While the development and real estate
community tend to be big Bloomberg back-
ers, the mayor has taken a lot of flak for his
shovel-prone tendencies. State Assembly-
quiet of late, but ise again
Mayor Bloomberg is
expected to ramp up his
development plans.
Clockwise from top left: a Moynihan Station rendering, Governors Island, the Hudson Yards site, and
Hunters Point South in Long Island City.