Jerry Speyer

Mega-landlords Jerry Speyer and Mort Zuckerman told The Times' Michael Barbaro they'd love to see a third Bloomberg term. It would help the local economy in troubling times, their reasoning goes--besides, what else would their friend Mike do with his time?

According to Mr. Zuckerman, chairman of Boston Properties, controlling owner of the GM Building, among other trophies:  read more »

Jerry Speyer’s loss at the West Side rail yards seems to be working out pretty well for Gary Barnett.

With Mr. Speyer defeated—the chairman of Tishman Speyer Properties fumbled the $1 billion deal with the state to buy the site’s development rights in May, ultimately backing out of an agreement—so, too, has fallen his plan to raze a piece of a former elevated rail line that runs along the rail yards on 30th Street.

Enter Mr. Barnett.

The president of Extell Development is planning a 61-story Steven Holl-designed mixed-use tower on the northeast corner of 10th Avenue and 30th Street, from which he plans an elevated pedestrian bridge to the section of rail line.  read more »

Jerry Speyer, whose Tishman Speyer recently had a falling out with the M.T.A.  read more »

Livable-city activists celebrated the latest, coolest additions to the city’s urban landscape on Thursday inside the stark white interior of Frank Gehry’s first building in New York City, the IAC headquarters on 11th Avenue.

The occasion was the Municipal Art Society’s 2008 MASterwork Awards, which, according to the program, “honor the year’s top projects for their excellence in architecture and urban design, and their contribution to New York’s built environment.”

A motley assortment of New York bold-faced names showed up for the event, including Diane Von Furstenberg, there to receive a Best Historic Preservation award for the DVF Studio Headquarters at 440 West 14th Street in the Meatpacking District.

So did developer extraordinaire Jerry Speyer, who served on the awards committee and who presented the Best Building awards; and Ann Buttenwieser, who accepted a Best Neighborhood Catalyst award for her Floating Pool Lady, that pool-in-a-barge parked last summer at the foot of Brooklyn Heights.  read more »

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 »

Speaking from London earlier today, Michael Bloomberg said the deal for the West Side rail yards was still alive, and called on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to work out its differences with Tishman Speyer and come to an agreement. The M.T.A. said it reached an impasse with Tishman Speyer yesterday.

“These projects are phenomenally complex—they have lots of different layers of government involved,” Mr. Bloomberg said, speaking to reporters. “My hope is that the state government, really the M.T.A. in this case, can get together and solve the problems that they have and that Tishman Speyer has so that they can come together. But I don’t think it’s the least bit fair or accurate to say that anything’s dead.”

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Did Jerry and Rob Speyer dive into a project too big for the real estate giants to handle?

When Tishman Speyer Properties was announced winner of the West Side rail yards development rights in late March, the scene was a cheery one, with the governor and mayor on hand at the yards to hail the Speyers as victors. Now, with the deal apparently dead, the mood has changed substantially [background on the deal collapse here].

In the weeks since the March announcement, Tishman Speyer appeared to grow unexpectedly wary. What was ultimately the sticking point in negotiations—the firm wanted to wait an extra year or so before closing on the eastern rail yard, until the western rail yard was rezoned—was a point that Tishman accepted a few weeks back when it was selected.  read more »

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 »

If there is anything to be learned from the moves and actions of the Speyer family over the past few years, it is that its members have a penchant for high-profile trophy properties; they have no qualms about aggressively engaging in mega-deals for the city’s largest sales; they can win out in tough contests; and they sell buildings for tremendous returns.

The Tishman Speyer kingdom, already extending to more than a dozen U.S. cities and three continents, will now raise a flag on the far West Side of Manhattan. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority yesterday declared the longtime New York real estate firm the developer and owner-to-be of its 26-acre rail yards, Manhattan’s largest chunk of undeveloped real estate, bounded by 11th and 12th avenues, and 30th and 33rd streets. [See our coverage from Wednesday here, here, here, and here.]

Now the fate of the West Side rests in large part in the Speyers' hands, as officials and real estate executives say the successful creation of a new business district a few avenues west of America’s largest central business district depends on the development of the rail yards, long eyed as the site for something other than open air.  read more »

So that new skyscraper that Si Newhouse was hoping for? It appears dead.  read more »

Maybe it’s best to keep the champagne on ice just for a few more days.

There’s a bit more work to be done on the deal between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Tishman Speyer over the West Side rail yards, as the MTA did not give, as it once planned to, a “conditional letter of designation” to Tishman today for the deal. With some final details yet to be ironed out, that designation comes in the next 14 days, to be followed by a contract within 120 days after that.  read more »

It's quite a real estate empire the Speyers now have. When they get done building 10 million square feet of office space and 3 million square feet of residential on the West Side rail yards, they can add that to the following massive trophies:

Stuyvesant Town and Cooper Village, the Manhattan apartment complexes Tishman Speyer and junior partners acquired in late 2006 for the record price of $5.4 billion. The complexes have 110 buildings total with over 11,200 apartments, many of which are moving toward market-rate.  read more »

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The daughter of Jerry Speyer, Tishman Speyer's chief and the 605th richest man in the world (alongside Sheldon Solow), according to Forbes' 2008 list, has bought a $12 million co-op at 888 Park Avenue, city records show.

Holly S. Lipton, the vice president of GSC Partners Capital Group, won’t be straying far from her old digs on East 87th Street when she moves into the fourth-floor unit on 78th and Park.  read more »

Despite the national housing market crisis and some serious global competition, Manhattan real estate moguls maintained a commanding presence in the billionaires club in 2008, according to Forbes’ annual list.

Donald Trump fell from No. 314 in 2007 to 368 this year with a net worth of $3 billion. The founder of Related Companies, Stephen Ross, jumped from No.  read more »

Real estate tycoon Jerry Speyer seems to be tiring of Con Ed bills, as he plans to unveil a small farm of 363 solar panels at the Tishman Speyer-owned Rockefeller Center tomorrow.

The complex, Tishman Speyer claims, will be Manahttan’s largest privately owned generation station for solar energy, according to a press advisory.

Joining Jerry for the announcement will be his son Rob, and Mayor Bloomberg.

The Tishman Speyer plan looks, in comparison to Extell’s eclecticism or Brookfield’s urbanism, downright conservative (or, if you prefer, stately). It is not enormously high (about 1,000 feet), and is almost perfectly symmetrical along an east-west axis. The towers grow progressively smaller as they move to the west.

Its edge comes from the money behind it: the Speyers joined up with Morgan Stanley in a 50-50 partnership, and the investment bank will own its own 3-million-square-foot building. That’s the one in the right rear in the above picture. The fountain area is called “The Forum”; in the foreground stands what Tishman-Speyer/Morgan Stanley is calling “The New York Steps.”

Having a bank as a main tenant is nothing like having an international, multimedia company around, nor even a sexy magazine publisher, but maybe that’s what people are talking about when they compare the greater Hudson Yards neighborhood to Canary Wharf in London. With just 3,000 apartments (300 of which are affordable) and 10 million square feet of office, Tishman Speyer’s proposal leans more heavily commercial than any of the others. Despite the fact that financial firms work around the clock, somehow this bid does not seem like it will do much for the nightlife along the Hudson.

The designer, Helmut Jahn, has done sweeping statements for Jerry Speyer before--consider the Sony Center in Berlin--and maybe he will here again, after the bid gets through committee.

“We think that by having our tenant and partner pretty much guarantees the success of the project,” Mr. Speyer said. “We have a tenant. We have the capital. We’re ready to buy the land and to do what needs to be done.”

Probably never had so many of New York’s real estate elite crammed themselves into such a small space as happened Sunday afternoon at the press preview of proposals to develop the Western Rail Yards: Steve Roth, Stephen Ross, Jerry Speyer and his son Rob, Ric Clark, Gary Barnett, Steven Holl, Helmut Jahn and Rafael Pelli. S.I. Newhouse even dropped by, very casually dressed, as proof that if Mr. Roth’s bid won, he’d move Condé Nast west to 10th Avenue.

They all crammed themselves into a vacant storefront on West 43rd Street to show of their versions of New York’s future: towering buildings that will pack some 30,000 residents and workers into a six-square block area along the Hudson River, between 30th and 33rd streets. The architectural models themselves costs tens of thousands of dollars; the bids, submitted last month, ate up a few million, according to a number of developers.

Not surprisingly, the five teams talked a lot about how their particular plan creates a vibrant new neighborhood-- this, after all, is the retail version of the plans. No financials were disclosed, and the point is to try to curry favor with the public to create a popular favorite. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority--which, with the Bloomberg administration’s input, will choose the winner in the next few months--has got to pay more attention to how much money each team is offering, when they’d be able to pay it, and how likely they’d get it done.

“There are two or three of these that are done by teams that are really competent,” said Mr. Roth, “and in the end I think it's going to be the financial part of the deal that is going to differentiate them.”

Each of the plans profess to save the northern section of the High Line and promise to provide at least some affordable housing. The tallest buildings would stretch 1,000, 1,100, even 1,300 feet into the air. (The Empire State Building now clocks in at 1,250 feet.) The cost, according to a number of the developers, will likely come in between $10 billion to $20 billion, with completion anticipated in the early 2020’s

There were also plenty of wild and creative ideas, like, from Brookfield Properties, Diller Scofidio & Renfro's towers (pictured above) that are joined by a quarter-mile running track; mechanisms to reuse sullage for irrigation; patent-pending technology to create a better platform over the rail yards; a movie screen on which 20th Century Fox could premiere new films; and so on.

The exhibit of the five proposals, which includes architectural models, displays and videos, will be open to the public every day for the next two weeks, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., starting today (with the exception of Thanksgiving). The address is 335 Madison Avenue, although the storefront is really located at the northwest corner of 43rd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue. Comment cards will be available for visitors to give input.

The Real Estate will post synopses of the five designs throughout the day.

The Speyers are pulling out all the stops to lease Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village apartments at market-rate rents.

The leasing office there is offering a free, all-inclusive trip to Cabo San Lucas to the broker who closes the most deals at the mega-complex, according to a report from brokerage The Real Estate Group. The five runners-up each win an iPhone.

Five developers have bid on the Western Rail Yards. The bids came into the yards' owner, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, by 5 p.m. on Thursday, and they include the usual heavyweights of New York City building.

1. Extell Development Company
2. Brookfield Properties Developer LLC
3. The Related Companies
4. TS West Side Holding, LLC (A Joint Venture of Tishman Speyer and Morgan Stanley)
5. Hudson Center East LLC and Hudson Center West LLC (A Joint Venture of Vornado Realty Trust and The Durst Organization, Inc.)

For the MTA's statement on the selection process, which should drag on toward at least spring, click here.

For earlier Observer coverage of the architects who could get to shape the yards, click here.  

A fancy architect may not speak as loudly as cash, but it could give you an edge in the fight to lay claim to 26 acres of Manhattan real estate. Clearly, that’s the thought of a number of the developers who are working on proposals for the Western Rail Yards, which are due at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s offices by 5 p.m. today.

We’ve scurried up a few notes about who has hired whom from sources connected to each of the proposals.  read more »

On the heels of their $22 billion buy of Archstone-Smith, Jerry and Rob Speyer have made another blockbuster deal. Tishman Speyer has purchased several floors at 30 Rockefeller Plaza back from NBC for $222 million.

Jerry and Rob, the father-and-son duo that run Tishman Speyer, own the iconic 70-story 30 Rock, in addition to all 12 buildings at Rockefeller Center. NBC bought the 1.6 million square feet it occupies at 30 Rock from the Speyers in 1996.  read more »

His new Manhattan residential empire is rapidly expanding.  read more »

What a Tuesday for Jerry Speyer! First, his firm partners with Lehman Brothers to buy apartment behemoth Archstone-Smith in a historic deal worth $22.2 billion. Then, the board of trustees of the Museum of Modern Art elects him its chairman! Effective July 1, Mr. Speyer will take over from outgoing chairman Robert Menschel.  read more »

The Speyer family does everything fabulously, and the only reason you don’t hear more about them i  read more »

The Speyer family does everything fabulously, and the only reason you don’t hear more about th  read more »

Rockefeller Center has long been a haven for staid bank branches, airline ticket offices and other d  read more »

The deal to build a biotech center in New York took five years and required a considerable amount of arm twisting, but today the mayor announced Alexandria Real Estate Equities would get the honors.

The arm-twisting--or, if you prefer, diplomacy--came courtesy of figures like Sandy Weil, Henry Kravis and Jerry Speyer, who all serve on boards of universities and hospitals around the city that had to agree to form a consortium first.

"In other places around the country, there are fewer institutions to get together. It was actually harder here in New York because they are used to competing with one another," said Kathy Wylde, the CEO and president of the Partnership for New York City. "Some of my members were able to approach their institutions and get them interested in collaborating."

Alexandria, which will build 870,000 square feet across three buildings, will pay the city $3.1 million a year, including payments in lieu of taxes on the land it will occupy at the northern end of Bellevue between 28th and 19th streets along the FDR. But a special incentive district on the property extends the same benefits that developers usually only get north of 96th street or in the boroughs: a 16-year abatement on the taxes for the buildings themselves. In addition, the Partnership for New York City's investment fund has committed $10 million to lure small and medium-sized companies to take space in the complex, dubbed the East River Science Park, once it opens, starting in 2008.  read more »

- Matthew Schuerman

Camper, Deadhead, scholar, a scion for the times: He's Howard's boy, but he's really earning it; ent  read more »

A little before 10 p.m. on Jan.  read more »

In case it fails to find a developer willing to pay hundredsof millions to build a 900-foot skyscrap  read more »

In what may prove to be the final round of bidding for the New York Coliseum site, developers Jerry  read more »

Rockefeller Center has long been a haven for staid bank branches, airline ticket offices and other d  read more »