Gimbels Passageway

A recent NY Times article about the current Vornado situation with 15 Penn Plaza, (a.k.a. Hotel Pennsylvania) state, that before construction can begin on the 15 Penn Plaza office, "transit improvements must be designed and agreed upon before the city will grant Vornado building permits."  Check out the link for more information.

A letter to Mr. Roth and Mr. Greenbaum

I opened up my mailbox today and found this wonderful letter from Mr. Marco Zanaletti, who just happens to live in Italy.  the letter is listed below and reads:

Da: Marco <marcoz88@alice.it>

Data: 18 settembre 2010 16.26.07 GMT+02.00

A: dgreenbaum@vno.com

Cc: sroth@vno.com

Oggetto: Pennsylvania Hotel

Dear Sirs, 

From what it was once a beautiful and unique Country - Italy - I am begging you not to demolish the Pennsylvania Hotel. An awfully lot of money can be made more easily and smartly out of history than out of cheap consumerism. If we had preserved our country and our landscape, we would today be much richer, not only in our pockets, but in our hearts too. New York has lost already many landmarks, last but not least due to terrorism. 

So please, let the Penn hotel survive, as a piece of the America which changed the world for the better and that we learned to love and respect.

Yours truly, 

Marco Zanaletti

Via Ticino 88

20081 Abbiategrasso (Milano) 

Italy

Thank you Marco, let us hope your letter does not fall on deaf ears.

A quote from Steve Roth

 Back in March Steve Roth gave speech at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.  The Observer quoted the following:


Mr. Roth, who bought Alexander's in large part for its real estate holdings, offered his take on his reticence to build, and why he let the site sit empty for so long:
The New York newspapers, he complained, said "I couldn't make a decision; I didn't know what I wanted to do.
"Bullshit. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted the price to go up. A lot. And I was willing to wait because I had almost no basis in the land."
There was another plus to waiting, he noted, offering a refreshingly candid developer's take on one way to pursue government subsidies:
"My mother called me and said [of the site], 'It's dirty. There are bums sleeping in the sidewalks of this now closed, decrepit building. They're urinating in the corners. It's terrible. You have to fix it.'
"And what did I do? Nothing.
"Why did I do nothing? Because I was thinking in my own awkward way, that the more the building was a blight, the more the governments would want this to be redeveloped; the more help they would give us when the time came.
"And they did."


The city is obviously being played for a fool, and yet they still play into his hands.

The New Fate of the Hotel

I got this via a Google alert.


http://www.observer.com/2010/real-estate/city%E2%80%99s-new-third-tallest-tower