NEW YORK | 15 Penn Plaza (Hotel Penn) | 1,200 FT / 388 M | 61 FLOORS

[TechTalkGuy]

I love skyscrapers and when tall buildings are built nearby, it creates density.
That is the formula that made New York, New York.
A city so great, they named it twice.

Let's build it twice.
More towers, more density, no excuses.

I want this tower!

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by TechTalkGuy

It appears that this site is having the same difficulties as 2 WTC in regards to attracting anchor tenants.

2 WTC has an anchor tenant.

I don't think Vornado is currently marketing the Penn Plaza site, at least not overtly. They have always stated that they wanted to build in tandem with the Penn Station/MSG rebuilding.

[ILNY]

^ In that case they will have to wait a decade or two.

[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...w-office-tower

Facebook poking around for space in a brand-new office tower
Internet giant seeking equally large space for growing New York hub


Daniel Geiger By Daniel Geiger
February 19, 2016

Facebook is looking for a new space in which to consolidate and possibly further expand its New York City offices, according to several major landlords and office leasing brokers familiar with the social media giant’s search.

Several of those sources said that Facebook has begun interviewing major developers including the Related Companies and one of its present landlords, Vornado Realty Trust, about moving into a newly built office tower. The $300 billion company is seeking 500,000 square feet or more.

A spokeswoman for Facebook declined to comment.

Facebook may not move for several years, the sources said. The social media giant just rented an additional 80,000 square feet at Vornado's 770 Broadway, where it already has a 10-year lease for 355,000 square feet. Because the 1.6-million-square-foot building has other large tenants like J.Crew and AOL, brokers say Facebook wants a large block of space that would allow it to grow more freely in the future.

The company is said to be considering space in one of several office towers being developed or that could be built in the coming years in the Hudson Yards. It could also be a potential tenant at the World Trade Center, the sources said.

Vornado, New York's second-largest office landlord, could develop new space for the company in the vicinity of Penn Station among other locations. A developer could build an office tower from the ground up if Facebook agrees to rent 500,000 square feet.

Other large tech companies have executed rapid expansion plans in the city, including Google, which bought the nearly 3-million-square-foot building at 111 Eighth Avenue for its NYC headquarters.

[Swede]

500 000 sf would be enough for the tower to start moving forward, right?

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Swede

500 000 sf would be enough for the tower to start moving forward, right?

Yeah, that should be enough to get financing. I never would have thought it would be facebook to jumpstart any tower though. Vornado's involvement with a NEW tower would suggests this one is at least in play. The time window would be more than enough to allow for demolishment/construction. But it's just one possibility out of a few developers.

[chris08876]

I hope the deal becomes a reality. Its good to see this area being considered. Now all we need is for BlackRock to sign for WTC2, and we can have two more supertalls or in the case of this tower near MSG, a potential super tall.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by chris08876

I hope the deal becomes a reality. Its good to see this area being considered. Now all we need is for BlackRock to sign for WTC2, and we can have two more supertalls or in the case of this tower near MSG, a potential super tall.

If they get that anchor tenant (any anchor tenant), the tower will rise...'




http://rew-online.com/2016/02/24/vor...up-in-the-air/

Vornado’s plans for Hotel Pennsylvania still up in the air

BY CHRISTIAN BRAZIL BAUTISTA
FEBRUARY 24, 2016

Vornado remains unsure about its plans for Hotel Pennsylvania, the famed hotel that sits near Madison Square Garden and the Empire State Building.

The building, which the company originally planned to raze to give way to a 1,216 ft. tower called 15 Penn Plaza, has been awaiting an exhaustive renovation since 2013.

Speaking during Vornados’ fourth quarter earnings call last week, Steven Roth, the company’s chairman and CEO, said that his firm has yet to decide on the property’s future because of the volatility of the hospitality market and their inability to attract an anchor tenant.

“We have not yet resolved what the right business plan is for that,” he said.

“The hotel business is soft… it’s very cyclical and very volatile and, over the years of our ownership, it’s gone up and down repeatedly. We’re in a down cycle now. So, that’s step number one. “Step number two is, is that we have not been able to land a tenant that would justify razing the building — an office tenant — and building an office building and I don’t know whether we even think that that’s likely or not. So, the answer is, the Hotel Pennsylvania’s time will come.”

.....The 15 Penn Plaza tower was expected to be just 34 feet shorter than the Empire State Building. In spite of being separated by two avenues, the buildings are only about 900 feet apart.

Community Board 5 opposed the project. However, it was approved by both the City Planning Commission and the City Council.

In 2014, Roth revived the possibility of the 15 Penn Plaza plan. During an earnings call, he said that his company was “getting very interesting, intriguing incomings as to office tenants that might want that site.”

Right now, however, Vornado is focusing on its nearby One Penn Plaza and Two Penn Plaza projects.

[CityGuy87]

With the popularity of Hudson Yards and the upcoming overhauls to the Penn Station area, how the hell has this not attracted any potential tenants?

TD Bank agreed to anchor 1 Vanderbilt before it was even approved, so why is this tower, which was approved almost 6 years ago and (like 1 Vanderbilt) directly next to a major transportation center, failing to attract tenants?

We keep hearing about how NYC needs more modern office towers but when developers propose just that, it then turns into an uphill struggle to find that one anchor tenant.

15 Penn and 2 WTC cannot catch a break it seems...

[Eidolon]

I'm really looking forward for this tower to get going and I'm hoping Facebook chooses to come to Penn station.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by CityGuy87

With the popularity of Hudson Yards and the upcoming overhauls to the Penn Station area, how the hell has this not attracted any potential tenants?

TD Bank agreed to anchor 1 Vanderbilt before it was even approved, so why is this tower, which was approved almost 6 years ago and (like 1 Vanderbilt) directly next to a major transportation center, failing to attract tenants?

We keep hearing about how NYC needs more modern office towers but when developers propose just that, it then turns into an uphill struggle to find that one anchor tenant.

15 Penn and 2 WTC cannot catch a break it seems...

This tower was the first of all of the big new office towers to land a tenant, then that fell through. Similar things are happening with tower 2, but for different reasons. Vornado itself hasn't fully commited to getting this thing off. But there are many similarities to One Vanderbilt. This would have direct access to Penn Station, One Vanderbilt will have direct access to Grand Central. One Vanderbilt will be a key to revitalizing the area around Grand Central, the same as 15 Penn could do here. The only difference is that the Grand Central district has long been a central business district, while the city has left the area around Penn Station to be what it is today. Not to mention the multiple redevelopment scenarious with relocating Madison Square Garden that fell through. But with the development of the Hudson Yards area, particularly Manhattan West, the wave of change will hit this area. Vornado will land their tenant if that is where they truly wish to go.

[NYguy]

http://therealdeal.com/issues_articl...laza-war-room/

Inside Vornado’s Penn Plaza ‘war room’
Will Steve Roth’s quest to reposition one of the biggest office portfolios in the city pay off?





March 01, 2016
By Rich Bockmann

Penn Plaza takes its moniker, of course, from Pennsylvania Station — the nation’s busiest transit hub. But Vornado Realty Trust, the mega-REIT that owns some 8 million square feet of office space in the area, has another name for it: the Big Kahuna.

With hot office markets like Hudson Yards (rising to the west), Chelsea (moving north) and Midtown South (coming in from the east), the Penn Plaza area is the company’s top priority.

“They’ve got a war room dedicated to the area,” one source, who visited the company’s headquarters at 888 Seventh Avenue, told The Real Deal.

The company is investing hundreds of millions of dollars into properties in the vicinity of the Penn Plaza district to give the buildings and public spaces “a little TLC,” as company CEO Steven Roth has put it. (The company’s properties span from Fifth to Ninth avenues between 31st and 34th streets).
The portfolio is one of the largest concentrations of office space owned by one landlord in the city. All told, it’s about on par with the Related Companies’ Hudson Yards, the World Trade Center site and Tishman Speyer’s Rockefeller Center....

One and Two Penn Plaza

The most ambitious component of Vornado’s Penn Plaza revamp is its plan to combine the two largest buildings in the area into a 4.2-million-square-foot, tech-style mega complex.

The 2.5 million-square-foot, 57-story One Penn Plaza and the 1.6-million-square-foot Two Penn Plaza sit on the west side of Seventh Avenue, directly across from each other on 33rd Street.

The buildings are currently both linked underground to Penn Station, which Vornado is in the running to redevelop.

“They sit right on top of the busiest train station in North America. There are not many other buildings that share that honor,” Roth said.

“When you think about it, those two buildings are giant,” he added. “They are really sort of like kissing cousins.”

Roth did not reveal much in the way of details on how exactly Vornado would combine the two buildings, but he did disclose plans to re-skin Two Penn and replace the punched windows with new ones that will run nearly floor to ceiling.

Hotel Pennsylvania

Vornado is still up in the air with its plans for the 1,700-room hotel across the street from Penn Station on Seventh Avenue.

Prior to the financial crisis, the developer had a handshake deal with Merrill Lynch to tear down the building and construct the financial firm a 68-story, 2.8-million-square-foot headquarters on the site that would top out taller than the Empire State Building.

During the financial crisis, however, Merrill Lynch was purchased by Bank of America, and plans for a new headquarters were shelved.

Vornado still has approvals in place for that project and has been approached in recent years by other interested tenants. But back in 2014, Roth said the numbers didn’t work out.

The on-again, off-again plans have also included renovating the property or connecting it to the company’s 1.1-million-square-foot office-and-retail property Manhattan Mall, which counts JC Penny and advertising giant FCB Global as tenants and sits on the other side of the block facing Sixth Avenue.

The building is currently clad in construction netting. But in August, Roth again told investors he couldn’t yet commit to a teardown or renovation.
“We are also unable to make a commitment now as to whether it’s going to go for a hotel use or an office use or whatever,” he said on an earnings call.
“We have all kinds of different conversations going on,” he added. “I can only tell you one thing with incredible sincerity: It will be well worth the wait.”

[artspook]

time for MSqG to take another hike . .
it almost happened again just before 911 . .
and Gehry co-designed one of the handful of towers that was to replace it . .

That tall one had a simple sumptuous half-fish-shape segment . .
as part of its asymmetrical crown design . .
It didn't resemble an actual fish . . of course . .
the form consisted of converging complex-curves . .
very sharp & uncommonly contemporary.

I have mixed feelings about Pelli's massively bulky 15 Penn Plaza design . .
though its glassy bulge . . seems trimmer than the pillowy Manhattan West towers.

[NYguy]

http://therealdeal.com/2016/05/03/vo...n-station-bid/

May 03, 2016
By Rey Mashayekhi


On the office leasing front, Vornado signed more than 730,000 square feet of New York office leases across 36 different transactions in the first quarter, with average starting rents north of $84 per square foot. Greenbaum said asking rents in Midtown have surpassed the $80 per square foot mark, while Vornado “continued to outperform the market” with six separate leasing transactions valued at north of $100 per square foot in the quarter.

Far from performing at such robust levels, the hotel industry is currently “in a down cycle,” which Greenbaum attributed to a “gross oversupply” in hotel product despite strong domestic and international tourism in the city.

He noted that Vornado’s Hotel Pennsylvania, at 401 Seventh Avenue adjacent to Madison Square Garden, has continued to underperform — with the REIT viewing the property as a “parking lot” for future development opportunities.

[antoun]

Hey NYguy, does this have any chance of being built?

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by antoun

Hey NYguy, does this have any chance of being built?

Yes. Read the previous post, and the highlighted quotes.

They need an anchor tenant first.

[NYguy]

Its amazing to me that the hotel is still doing business. It's been draped for what seems like forever now.

[dumbo]

I have fingers crossed for this one. The area around MSG is one of my least favorite in NYC. Glad it's starting to see some love- being right over Penn Station, there is the opportunity to support some real density here.

[chris08876]

Vornado: Hotel Penn office conversion unlikely, tower may be turned into apartments

Vornado CEO Steven Roth has ruled out converting Hotel Pennsylvania into a supertall office tower, instead floating the possibility that the hotel may be turned into an apartment building.

In a conference call during the 2016 Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Real Estate Brokers Conference, Roth expressed skepticism over a possible office conversion, saying that the site cannot compete with other Manhattan office complexes such as Hudson Yards and the World Trade Center.

“The problem is we cannot deliver the site economically in competition with what Hudson Yards is doing and the World Trade Center is doing. And we’re not off by a little, we’re off by a lot for lots of different reasons,” he said.

“So I wouldn’t predict that a large office tower is in our future for Hotel Penn. I mean I can’t tell you how much we hate having to build a building where we have to get $150 rents or something like that, which are not in the market. It’s just not something that we do.”

Roth’s comments provide more clarity to Vornado’s on-again, off-again plans for the property. During an earnings call last February, he said that “they have not resolved what the business plan is” for the hotel. Months later, during another earnings call, he described Hotel Pennsylvania as a “parking lot for future development.”

While Roth has narrowed down the possibilities, it is still uncertain whether the property will be turned into apartments or will continue operating as a hotel. “The options for Hotel Penn are, leave it where it is, knock it down. If we knock it down, it’s going to be apartments and retail. If we leave it the way it is, it’s going to be a hotel,” Roth said.

Hotel Pennsylvania, which sits near Madison Square Garden and the Empire State Building, has been awaiting renovations since 2013. Vornado originally planned to raze the building to give way to a 1,216-foot tower called 15 Penn Plaza. However, plans were shelved when Merrill Lynch decided not to take space in the building in 2007.

============================
http://rew-online.com/2016/09/16/vor...to-apartments/

[chris08876]

I guess this could be a good thing? I mean, no super tall office, but... BUT... it looks like Roth is insinuating a large residential possibily? Although I would hate the existing structure is kept and it becomes a hotel to residential conversion. If they took it down, a super tall residential would be nice. Hell, throw in a nice chunk of affordable housing.

Although the location is impeccable for office, but, with HY and everything else going up, the market is really competitive!!!