The Metropolitan Museum of Art is planning a blockbuster addition.
The tony museum, which sits along Fifth Avenue between East 80th and 84th streets, previously announced it had chosen British architect Sir David Chipperfield to develop a new design for a Southwest Wing for its modern and contemporary art.
According to the Met, that assignment “includes the potential to include the adjacent galleries for the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas as well as additional operational spaces.”
The size of the entire project will encompass plenty of elbow room at 180,000 square feet, says Daniel Brodsky, the real estate developer, who is also chairman of the Met’s board.
“It will be no higher than the existing buildings that are there,” he advised. “It goes down and up to a rooftop with a terrace.”
The Met’s current terrace has been a big hit, so more outdoor space on its additional top is a no-brainer.
Brodsky is also glad to have completed the new $65 million David H. Koch Plaza at the front of the museum on Fifth Avenue. “It is pretty exceptional and makes their views more interesting,” he said of the area residents who had earlier expressed dismay over the renovation.
The museum currently has more than 2 million square feet and, last February, issued $250 million in taxable 30-year bonds to tackle infrastructure needs.
Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners is also consulting on a “holistic” basis as the museum reviews all its physical plants.
The Met Breuer, named after the building’s Brutalist architect, Marcel Breuer, opens March 18 at the site of the former Whitney Museum and, for now, will host its contemporary collection.
As the Met is an exterior landmark and has interior portions landmarked as well, any proposed changes will need to be approved by NYC’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Lest any eco-nuts start rallying, a Met spokeswoman says, “The footprint of the project in Central Park will be no larger than the current footprint. It is too early in the design process to give specifics, and the Met will obtain all necessary government approvals, including from Landmarks.”
Expedia helps book travelers to destinations all over the world but is itself landing near the top of the Empire State Building. The website leased a prebuilt — 9,042 square feet on the 72nd floor for the next seven years — that had an asking rent of $74 a square foot.
CBRE’s Brian Hay, Tim Hay, Sacha Zarba and Robert Hill represented Expedia, which now has a smaller office at 275 Madison.
The Empire’s ownership, Empire State Realty Trust, had Fred Posniak and Shanae Ursini in-house along with JLL’s agency team of Paul Glickman, Jonathan Fanuzzi, Kip Orban and Harley Dalton.
Another Empire State Building tenant, Shutterstock, has expanded to more than 100,000 square feet and extended its lease for 13 years. It currently has the 20th and 21st floors of just over 83,583 square feet and has added the 25,000-square-foot 36th floor. The asking rent was $69 a square foot. Paul Ippolito of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented Shutterstock while ESRT’s Posniak and Ursini worked in-house on this deal.
None of the parties responded to requests for comment.
The new 199-room Times Square Cambria Hotel & Suites opens this week at 30 W. 46th St., with rooms at $250 to $300 a night.
“Our hotel will be the value play in New York City,” said Steve Joyce, chief executive of Choice Hotels, which owns Cambria, among other hotel brands. “We have incredible room [design] and interesting food that is done well and simple.”
The company gets 8 million to 9 million requests a year for city rooms — but so far has just 1,500 rooms to offer.
Gary Barnett of Extell Development has tucked a few more Diamond District Fifth Avenue pieces into his upcoming tower portfolio — some of which he had even sold or passed on due to pricing.
Yes, he’s paid more but, among the air, land and bricks he now has is 570 Fifth Ave., an address that makes bankers and investors oh-so-happy.
John Banks, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, which was tasked with cutting a wage deal with the Building Trades Association, said, “We would love to see a 421a that allows buildings to include affordable housing and makes it so that rentals can still compete [for land] with the high-priced condos. You cannot make the numbers work paying the prevailing wage for the rental housing.”
Costs for housing are driven by the price of the land, construction and property taxes on rental properties at 28 percent and 30 percent of gross income. So far, he says, there is no movement to reinvent the property tax system. “There is nothing more complex than the property tax system. It is a bear of an issue to try to tackle.”