NY Observer > Tishman Speyer

Covering Stuy Town in The Age of Speyer

Tom Acitelli — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:35:24 -0400

The Observer's Em Whitney peeks in on how spoof blog Lux Living and 51-year-old newspaper Town & Village are covering the controversy at Tishman Speyer's Stuyvesant Town and Cooper Village apartments. Full story here.

Covering Stuyvesant Town

Em Whitney — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:12:16 -0400

Lux Living is a neighborhood blog that focuses on coverage of Tishman Speyer's management of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. On its home page runs a graphic of a disheveled person in a hospital bed: "Closer to Bellevue than Belmont Park!" The graphic is a link to Stuy Town's promotional Web site.

Both Lux Living and local neighborhood newspaper Town & Village have been closely following Tishman's controversial new management style. The New York Times reported last week that the landlord suffered a $4.8 million loss in revenue last year on the roughly 11,200-unit apartment complexes and primarily attributed it to the landlord's legal costs in removing what Tishman described in the article as "illegal tenants. read more »

Electeds To Tishman: Set Eviction Rules at Stuy Town, Cooper Village

Lysandra Ohrstrom — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:42:29 -0400

On Tuesday afternoon, City Councilman Dan Garodnick called on Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village landlord Tishman Speyer to pay the legal fees of tenants who are proven to be legitimately occupying rent-stabilized apartments in the complex after contesting non-lease renewal notices from the landlord.

Under the proposal, which was endorsed by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and State Senator Tom Duane at a press conference, Tishman would also agree to a set of ground rules for attempting to evict tenants for allegedly breaking rent-stabilization rules.

“Over the last two years, we have seen an aggressive pursuit of tenants by Tishman Speyer, claiming that people are not using their apartments as their primary residence,” Mr. read more »

Stuy Town: It Depends On What Your Definition of Is Is

Tom Acitelli — Thu, 29 May 2008 10:55:05 -0400

From the New York Post this morning:

To attract new residents, the complex is adding 200,000 plants, 10,000 trees and has put in a fancy new gym. Pets, which were once a huge no-no, are now everywhere. And the complex is offering more free movie nights, cocktail mixers, sports leagues and outdoor events. read more »

Bloomberg Blames Mega-Projects' Woes on Albany Shake-Ups

Eliot Brown — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:41:36 -0400

A day after the M.T.A.’s West Side rail yards deal with Tishman Speyer Properties was officially declared dead, Mayor Bloomberg today pointed to the gubernatorial roller coaster in Albany to explain the troubles for his economic development agenda.

“The chaos in Albany was not good for us,” he told reporters. “I’m not disparaging what they were trying to do, it’s just that when you change administrations, it does slow things down, and nobody expected when the administration changed a year and a third ago, that a year and a third later, they would go through the same process.”

This is a tune the mayor has been singing for a few days now—in London, he was more explicit, saying, “When Eliot Spitzer came in, he basically stopped every project that the Pataki administration negotiated, saying he wanted to look at it.” read more »

MTA Declares Tishman Rail Yards Deal Dead; Looks Back to Other Bidders [UPDATED]

Eliot Brown — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:27:24 -0400

Big news from the M.T.A. via a statement. After Tishman Speyer tried over the weekend and in the past two days to revive talks, the state agency has officially stopped discussions and is opening up talks again with other developers.

From M.T.A. spokesman Jeremy Soffin:

The MTA met today with Tishman Speyer. Despite the best efforts of both sides, a final agreement could not be reached. The MTA has now re-entered discussions with other interested developers and remains committed to timely development of these unique and valuable parcels of land on Manhattan's Far West Side.
read more »

Tishman Speyer, M.T.A. Call Off West Side Rail Yards Wedding

Eliot Brown — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:23:22 -0400

The deal for billions of dollars worth of development over the West Side rail yards collapsed Thursday afternoon, with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Tishman Speyer hitting an impasse in negotiations. The failure to reach a deal came more than five weeks after the M.T.A. announced Tishman Speyer as the winner of the development rights, after a months-long bidding contest between six of the city’s largest development firms.

According to a statement from the M.T.A., the failure to complete the deal came as Tishman Speyer refused to close on the agreement for the eastern half of the rail yards until the western half was rezoned, a process that could easily take until late 2009, if not 2010. The accord reached in late March held that Tishman would close on the eastern half; then, after the western half was rezoned, they would close the deal on that section, completing the deal. The total deal was estimated to bring the M.T.A. about $1 billion from Tishman.

The collapse in talks came one day after the M.T.A. passed a self-imposed seven-day deadline to finish negotiations and sign a conditional letter of designation, a document that was not signed when Tishman won the bidding. Officials said at the time of that announcement, in late March, that they were highly confident a final deal would be reached, characterizing the designation letter as something of a formality. read more »

MTA, City, Tishman Speyer Miss Deadline on Rail Yards … Again

Eliot Brown — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:59:26 -0400

Five weeks after Tishman Speyer was announced the winner of the West Side rail yards, negotiations are still unfinished between Tishman, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the city, an M.T.A. spokesman confirmed.

The parties yesterday missed a seven-day deadline set by the M.T.A. at its board meeting last week, with the final details of a conditional letter of designation yet to be finalized. read more »

Robert Hammond To Jerry Speyer: 'I've Seen This Movie Before'

Choire Sicha — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:51:36 -0400

Tishman Speyer, the newly-chosen developers of the West Side rail yards, would like to eliminate the northernmost spur of the High Line.

Friends of the High Line president and co-founder Robert Hammond doesn't believe it's going to happen—after all, he's already overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles in the conversion of the elevated railway into a new city park.

When he first went to Mayor Bloomberg, he said, "The Mayor said 'Don't show us pretty pictures. We've got enough parks, we can't pay for them all.'"

So Hammond showed the city it could make money off the High Line—or at least, property owners in West Chelsea could and some other money would trickle down.

"I've seen this movie before," Hammond said today of Tishman Speyer's plans, speaking at the 2nd Annual Trends in New York City Land Use and Real Estate Development conference down at New York Law School this afternoon. "I think we'll get the whole Line," he said.

MTA, Tishman Speyer Miss Deadline on West Side Rail Yards

Eliot Brown — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:56:50 -0400

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Tishman Speyer have missed their first deadline in the project to develop the West Side rail yards, as the date for the MTA to officially designate Tishman Speyer as the developer has come and gone. read more »