IS Hines deliberately an gling to stall on its controversial, Jean Nouvel-designed tower next to the Museum of Modern Art, and blame the city for the delay?
Hines, one of the world’s largest developers, and Nouvel have clammed up. So it isn’t entirely unreasonable to speculate that they’re in no rush to build the asymmetrically contoured condo/hotel/museum tower next door to MoMA on West 53rd Street — which city Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden held to a mere 1,050 feet in height despite Hines’ plea to make it 200 feet taller.
Hines is grumbling that a shorter tower might not be economically viable. The company went to the City Council last week pleading to get the height back but failed. The Council also threw in a monkey wrench by limiting the hotel portion of what’s supposed to be an 850,000 square-foot tower to under 100,000 square feet, nearly one-third less than what Hines wanted.
But blaming the city is too easy. When Hines and Nouvel showed the plans last month, they had to know that Burden, who has a well-known interest in architecture, expected to see what the whole building would look like.
Instead, the model was conspicuously unfinished, showing the tallest of three triangular spires as an open framework with a cube-shaped box for mechanical elements.
Since so much of the debate has to do with the project’s skyline impact, how could Hines have gone to the city without showing the crown? “Better to blame the city for an ugly, empty lot next door to the Museum of Modern Art than to say, ‘We bought an empty lot and it will stay an empty lot,’ ” suggested one of our cynical sources who keeps an eye on stalls around town.
A Planning Department spokesperson declined to comment. Calls to Hines Managing Partner David Penick were not returned. Nouvel’s Paris-based assistant, Charlotte Kruk, said, “Unfortunately Mr. Nouvel is out of the office today and it’s impossible to answer your question.”
But a source said Hines and Nouvel were fully aware the 60-day clock was ticking down on the time period when the Planning Department needed to consider the 1,250-foot proposal — and now, time’s up. “Maybe it’s because everything in Paris closes up for the month of August,” an insider said half-jokingly.
At the Council hearing, Penick told CultureGrrrl blogger Lee Rosenbaum the job might not start for a while even if it gets approved.
That sounds like an understatement. In a market without credit, could Hines build the thing even if were only six feet tall?
It could cost up to $1 billion to construct. Since Hines announced the scheme two years ago, construction financing has been nonexistent. Also, the market for ultra-luxury condo residences is flat at best and the local hotel market seriously over-saturated.
Real Capital Analytics research chief Dan Fasulo noted that the $125 million Hines paid MoMA for the land — which doesn’t include all the air rights it would still need “was made at the top of the market, and it would surely be structured differently today.”
Even so, Fasulo said, “Hines is one of those companies that can put in more equity” than most — up to 35 percent or more — which might make it easier to find a lender.
*
Grom, the Italian maker of ultra-high-end gelato, has iced its third Manhattan location. Grom took 800 square feet at 240 Central Park South, the Art Deco apartment building with storefronts on the Broadway side.
Newmark Knight Frank’s Jonathan Krivine represented Grom; Gotham Realty’s Sarah Cohen repped the landlord.
Krivine wouldn’t discuss the rent, but noted that asking rents at refurbished locations in the vicinity — as at Joseph Moinian‘s 3 Columbus Circle across the street — run to $300 a foot.
*
Two investment firms have signed subleases totaling 15,000 square feet at Minskoff Equities’ 590 Madison Ave. Both Global Emerging Markets (GEM) and Kingsbrook Partners took built-out space previously occu pied by law firm Akin Gump.
Studley’s Zev J. Holzman repped both tenants. He said that when Akim Gump moved to the Durst Organization’s One Bryant Park, Durst agreed to take over the firm’s remaining lease obligation.
The asking rent was $65 a square foot. steve.cuozzo@nypost.com