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CRAINSNEWYORK.COM I APRIL 15, 2024

REAL ESTATE

MISSED CONNECTION How a Penn Station dream slipped away for Vornado’s Steven Roth | By Aaron Elstein

In the fall of 2007, Steven Roth was ready to make his mark on Manhattan’s skyline: an imposing, 2.8 million-square-foot tower on the site of the Hotel Pennsylvania, across the street from Madison Square Garden. The Cesar Pelli-designed tower would be Merrill Lynch’s new global headquarters. “The papers were done,” Roth reminisced in a 2021 shareholder letter. But a tremor ahead of the 2008 crash sank the deal. On the day it was to vote on moving uptown, Merrill's board discovered it was sitting on a $7.9 billion loss thanks to a rotting pile of subprime mortgages. And just like that, Roth recalled, “the deal was swept away.” Today, Roth still dreams about building on the Hotel Pennsylvania site, which fills most of West 32nd Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues and is tantalizingly close BY THE to the hip neighborhoods along the High Line and, to NUMBERS the east, Koreatown. Last year, he demolished the hotel designed by legendary architects McKim Mead & White. In its place, he has proposed to install tenWhat Steven nis courts, which officials say are one of several Roth paid in short-term ideas for the site until the time is right to 1997 for 4 build again. Fashion shows are another possibility. million square “The best use Roth can come up with for some of feet of properties the most valuable, potentially productive land in the city is a tennis court,” snarked Lynn Ellsworth, in Manhattan co-founder of advocacy group New Yorkers for a Human-Scale City. “That’s an insult to all New Yorkers.” “Give Roth credit, he’s trying to reimagine the Penn District,” said Alexander Goldfarb, an analyst at Piper Sandler. “It should work out. It just never has.” “They’ve wanted to build a lot more new space in a very complex environment,” said Anthony Paolone, a real estate analyst with JPMorgan Chase. “They’ve been long in waiting.” Roth, 82, has described his grand plans for the Penn Station

$650M

See PENN on Page 25

Above, Vornado CEO Steven Roth has waited 25 years — and counting — to develop the Penn District. At left is the site of the former Hotel Pennsylvania. At right is a rendering of Vornado’s Penn Platform, an outdoor space at the site. | BLOOMBERG, BUCK ENNIS, VORNADO

“The best use Roth can come up with for some of the most valuable, potentially productive land in the city is a tennis court.” — Lynn Ellsworth, co-founder of advocacy group New Yorkers for a Human-Scale City

Bloomberg housing policy faces harsh reassessment as shortage worsens By Nick Garber

Michael Bloomberg ushered in development that transformed some neighborhoods but also presided over a “downzoning” of others that some now say was a mistake. | ED REED/MAYORAL PHOTOGRAPHY OFFICE/FLICKR

Mayor Eric Adams rarely speaks ill of Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor with whom he enjoys a warm relationship. But a top Adams official delivered a barely concealed rebuke recently to one of Bloomberg’s most consequential legacies: changing zoning laws to restrict housing growth across the city. During his dozen years in office,

Bloomberg was known for authorizing several high-profile rezonings that boosted density in low-rise neighborhoods, helping to transform areas like Hudson Yards, Williamsburg and Long Island City into mazes of towers. But, more quietly, the Bloomberg years also saw dozens of neighborhood rezonings that did essentially the opposite, freezing existing streetscapes in place or even “downzoning” areas to restrict growth.

Years later, however, the city’s affordability crisis has reached untenable levels and a consensus has formed about the need for more housing construction to ease rents. That is prompting a reevaluation of the Bloomberg-era downzonings, which are now looked upon less favorably — even by some of the people who helped implement them. Mayor Adams is See HOUSING on Page 23

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REAL ESTATE This tenant’s lease deal might be the best bargain in Midtown.

NOTABLE These leaders in sustainability are redefining corporate commitments.

SOLAR ECLIPSE New Yorkers came out to see the moon cover the sun on April 8. See photos.

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