Durst Organization Inc.

Now it's really official: the M.T.A. board this afternoon voted to approve a deal with the Related Companies and Goldman Sachs to develop over the 26-acre West Side rail yards.

A few nuggets of rail yards info from the meeting: According to M.T.A. CFO Gary Dellaverson, who summarized negotiations to the board, the key to the Related Companies' victory was its willingness to literally pick up the $1.054 billion Tishman Speyer deal and sign it, only inserting one notable change.  read more »

One of the remaining bidders for the West Side rail yards, a team of the Durst Organizaiton and Vornado Realty Trust, said it is expecting that S.I. Newhouse’s Condé Nast will remain part of its bid as an anchor tenant.

“We expect that Condé would be our partner,” said Durst spokesman Jordan Barowitz.

However, Condé, which began a new search for space after Tishman Speyer was named the winner over the Durst/Vornado team in March, did not make clear its plans, as a company spokeswoman, Maury Perl, declined comment.  read more »

With Tishman Speyer out of the picture at the West Side rail yards, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is now headed back to the other three bidding teams (Extell Development, the Related Companies, and a joint venture of the Durst Organization and Vornado Realty Trust); that is, if they’re still interested.

The apparent frontrunner, given that it was the runner-up to Tishman in the original bidding, would be Durst/Vornado, the only remaining team in late March with an anchor tenant, S.I. Newhouse’s Condé Nast. If Condé Nast is no longer on board with a move—The Times has reported that Tishman failed to woo them in recent weeks—that could mean trouble for the Durst/Vornado bid, or certainly the value of it.  read more »

Tishman Speyer appears to be in the pole position going into the final stretch of the West Side rail yards saga, as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, as of this morning, was still negotiating with the firm to hammer out an agreement before Wednesday’s MTA board meeting, according to three people familiar with the talks.  read more »

A developer for the West Side rail yards could be selected as early as tonight, with Tishman Speyer and a venture between the Durst Organization and Vornado Realty Trust leading the field, according to two people familiar with discussions.  read more »

For the second time in three months, construction-related equipment has fallen from of Douglas Durst’s Bank of America Tower, located at the northeast corner of Bryant Park.

This afternoon, a horizontal post that was supporting netting fell from the 27th floor of the 54-story tower, dropping onto the seventh floor, according to the Department of Buildings. No injuries were reported.  read more »

How much money can it take to build the Bank of America tower at One Bryant Park?

A whole bunch, apparently.

The developer of the building, the Durst Organization, has taken out another $300 million mortgage, public records show, an amount that will be used “to finish the job,” said Durst spokesman Jordan Barowitz. The loan was always planned, Mr. Barowitz said, and should provide enough to bring the building to completion next year.  read more »

The Observer has launched a new weekly real-estate section called Location. Macklowes Ink Second-Biggest Building Buy in U.S. History "Macklowe Properties paid $1.73 billion for Worldwide Plaza at 825 Eighth Avenue, the second-largest sale price for an office building in U.S. history." Durst Signs Himself at One Bryant Park "The Durst Organization will take the entire 48th and 49th floors for a total of 61,000 square feet at the Bank of America Tower." Go to Commercial Breaks by John Koblin. No Vacancy for Stephen Ross' Related at Amsterdam Inn "Steve Wiebe's Westside Brewery Co., located at the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 76th Street, is about the last business left on the block. Apart from the bar, only the low-budget Amsterdam Inn directly above it remains in operation on this side of the street. Both the hotel and tavern are staying put, though, which somewhat complicates things for developer The Related Companies, which has otherwise wiped out a whole strip of storefronts in ravenous pursuit of the full block." Go to Counter Espionage by Chris Shott. Mr. Bollinger's Battle Over Columbia's Harlem Expansion "It was more than two years ago, over a couple of beers at The West End in Morningside Heights, when Jordi Reyes-Montblanc first told a Columbia University official that he wanted a community-benefits agreement." Go to story by Matthew Schuerman. Stuy Town Paper to Landlord: Read This! "Town & Village's torchbearers insist that the paper never shies away from more contentious issues at Stuyvesant Town and Cooper Village, reporting extensively on neighborhood crime as well as the frequent landlord-tenant disputes that inevitably arise at any rental property, particularly one so enormous. Lately, though, the landlord-tenant stuff has taken up an awful lot of column inches." Go to story by Chris Shott. Bloomberg Administration Names Top Development Priorities "Pull up a chair in City Hall! Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff gabs about Atlantic Yards, the far West Side, Bloomberg's final years in office,and Adam Gopnik." Go to The Sit-Down by Matthew Schuerman. How Pricey Co-ops Get Better Deals at Tax-Time "The city Department of Finance estimates New York's property value at $802.4 billion for the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1. It could be worth a lot more, if some in city government had their way--and if the state, which sets the city's property-tax structure, would listen. But fundamental changes to the city's property-tax structure seem as bloody likely as a new rent-controlled building along Central Park West." Go to The Lab by Tom Acitelli. Dude Descending a Staircase "Where did all the skinny spiral staircases go? That was a time. It's all over. The duplex is no longer so de rigueur. The man in the turtleneck is now a boy staring at a rectangular screen. He wears no gold around his neck. All the ornament is in the digital image, going left or right. Life has become an eternal pan, a horizontal prison. There is no secret upstairs: no murder, no spiritual ascent." Go to Interiors with Toni Schlesinger. Billionaire Flowers Seeks $23 M. Flip for Old Lycee Mansion "Billionaire J. Christopher Flowers has put the East 73rd Street mansion he bought just three months ago on the market, with a $6 million markup." Luca Luca Guy Drops $3.345 M. in Gramercy "Forty-two-year-old Luca Orlandi, the celebrity-friendly founder of Luca Luca, will have a nice new nest to feather now that his fall line has finished exhibiting at Fashion Week. According to city records, the designer has bought a duplex penthouse co-op at the Gramercy House at 22nd Street and Second Avenue for $3.345 million." Go to Manhattan Transfers by Max Abelson. They All Live in City Boxes, But They're Not All the Same "The new book High Rise Low Down is a love letter to Manhattan's better buildings, and, like most love letters, it's sappy in parts, repetitive, and ends with rosy hopes for the future." Go to book review by Tom Acitelli. Deeds and Deals "Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton lean on the new owners of Starrett City, and Robert Caro wouldn't change a thing about The Power Broker." Go to Deeds and Deals by Tom Acitelli and Mark Wellborn.

Tired off all the backstabbing and infighting that's typically reported on at 4 Times Square? (Not that The Observer would ever mention such things).

Well, there is actually some good news coming out of the Condé Nast building today, according to the New York Times.

The owners of a Times Square tower have wired their building with radio equipment designed to help emergency workers better communicate with each other once inside-- especially in parts of the building where radios tend to drop signals.  read more »

The installation of a so-called repeater system in the building, the 52-story Condé Nast building at 4 Times Square, took about a year and a half and cost less than $300,000, the owners said.

The Fire Department's first deputy commissioner, Frank Cruthers, called the installation of the system by the Condé Nast building's owners, the Durst Organization, a "wonderful example of corporate good citizenship."

- Michael Calderone

The Bank of America is taking another half-million square feet in the Durst Organization’s 1 Bryant Park (a.k.a. the Bank of America tower), bringing the 2.1 million-square foot building to about 80 percent full with two years to go until opening day. -Matthew Schuerman