Newhouse Inches Forward on West Side Tower; Murdoch's Bid Seen as Unlikely

Condé Nast is inching closer to a new West Side tower.

The Observer's Eliot Brown is reporting that the real estate partnership of Durst Organization and Vornado is one of the two front-runners in its bid for the West Side rail yards. Si Newhouse has an agreement with Durst-Vornado, so if they are chosen—and the winner could be chosen as early as tonight—he'll have a clear path for a new skysraper for all of Condé Nast's publications. Douglas Durst told The Observer in November they could move in as early as 2015; Mr. Newhouse said it would be in 2019.

Meanwhile, Eliot also reports that Rupert Murdoch's play for a new tower is looking increasingly unlikely. He writes that Related Properties, News Corp.'s real estate partner in the rail yards bid, never got a firm committment from Rupert Murdoch, meaning that the Murdoch-city that Stephen Ross was envisioning back in November won't come together. Back then it was looking like there could be a Murdoch fantasyland on 10th Avenue: Fox, The Wall Street Journal, Twentieth Century Fox and MySpace, all together in one two-million-square-foot tower. It looks like they'll be sticking to 1211 Avenue of the Americas.