Moynihan Station Gets Developer

by Alex Padalka

The Farley Post Office on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan is one step closer to becoming the new Daniel Patrick Moynihan Station that will expand the capacity of the existing Pennsylvania Station, which serves Amtrak and rail commuters from Long Island and New Jersey. Construction is slated for completion in 2010.

The Empire State Development Corp., the agency overseeing the project, recently selected the development team of Vornado Realty Trust and the Related Companies, both based in New York, to collaborate on the estimated $818 million project, which will receive funding from the city, state, and federal governments, the U.S. Postal Service, and the developers.

A large portion of the 1913 post office - which sits atop several existing train platforms as well as corridors connecting the railroads and subway lines - will become part of the transit complex in the redesign. The project will increase access to more than 500,000 daily commuters through new or enlarged connecting corridors, new access routes and street entrances, and additional retail and dining options.

The project entails building out 300,000 sq. ft. for the train station, with New Jersey Transit expected to be the largest tenant. The developers will also build 850,000 sq. ft. for commercial space and will be able to transfer 1 million sq. ft. of air rights to build a future residential tower at One Penn West, a parcel owned by Vornado.

According to the development corporation, the new design incorporates a rippled glass canopy that brings light all the way down to the tracks as per a preliminary 1999 redesign by David Childs of Skidmore Owings & Merrill. Childs is staying on as consultant.

The developers have been working with New York-based Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum and James Carpenter Design Associates on a final design expected this fall. The development corporation expects to select other members of the design team, including structural engineers, in September and to issue bonds for the project by the end of the year.

The corporation also intends to preserve the façade, including the signature stairwell and columns of the 1913 building, designed by McKim, Mead & White. The Postal Service will continue to operate out of 250,000 sq. ft. in the building.

The station was named in honor of Moynihan, the former U.S. senator from New York, in part because he first secured funds for the project. Moynihan died in 2003.

Trump Sues West Side Partners for $1 Billion

by Alex Padalka and Tom Stabile

Donald Trump filed a $1 billion lawsuit in late July against his partner on the 74.6-acre Riverside South complex on Manhattan's West Side. The announcement came only weeks after the partnership, Hudson Waterfront Associates, had confirmed it was selling the undeveloped portions of the property for $1.76 billion to the Carlyle Group a private equity firm based in Washington, D.C., and Extell Management, a New York-based developer headed by Gary Barnett.

Trump said he was suing the Hong Kong-based Cheng Group in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for allegedly selling the property for less money than it is worth. The Cheng Group, through an entity called New World Associates, is the general partner of Hudson Waterfront.

Trump alleges that the Hong Kong developers refused better offers, including one of $3 billion. He also claims that he is entitled to 30 percent of the sale profits.

"This case arises from a staggering breach by defendants," the suit read. "In breach of the stringent fiduciary duties defendants owed to Trump, the defendants - over Trump's repeated loud protests - agreed to sell the property for $1.76 billion, at the same time that they had unsolicited offers from leading real estate investors to pay almost double that amount."

The Cheng Group, a coalition of business magnates from China, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, has issued statements calling Trump's suit groundless. The defendants filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in early August.

Hudson Waterfront expects to close a deal with Carlyle and Extell later this year to sell a 14.6-acre area from 59th to 65th streets between West End Avenue and Riverside Boulevard, which encompasses nine remaining undeveloped sites. The deal would also include three rental unit buildings already completed on the site. Carlyle and Extell will immediately sell those buildings, which have 1,325 apartments, to Chicago-based Equity Residential for $816 million, according to press releases.

The current build-out plan for Riverside South calls for a 7.9-million-sq.-ft. residential development bounded by 72nd Street on the north, 59th Street on the south, the Hudson River on the west, and Freedom Place and West End Avenue on the east. By this fall, the site will have seven completed towers, nearly a mile of new city street infrastructure, and almost a dozen acres of parkland. Construction began in 1997.