A New York Supreme Court judge has set an auction date of June 23, 2010 for the vacant lot at 12-20 West 40th Street across from the New York Public Library in Bryant Park, according to an article today by Adam Pincus at therealdeal.com.
The property runs through the block to 39th street and and been acqired in 2006 for $45 million by an affliate of Ascent Real Estte Advistors, which borrowed $43.9 million from Petra Capital Mortgage that subsequetly transfeered tht eloan to a debt security called Petro CRE CDO, acconding to court records.
Petra CRE CDO filed to foreclose on the property's defaulted loan in March, 2009.
Ascent had gotten approval from the City Planning Commission in 2008 for a special permit to erect a 31-story hotel and residential condominium project on the site in a tower designed by Morris Adjmi.
The limestone-and-glass tower would have had about 150 hotel rooms and about 64 residential condominium apartments.
The proposal sought to use a restoration plan for the former Knox Hat Building that had been approved in 1994 when the Republic National Bank intended to develop this long-vacant site. The bank had developed the large office tower directly south of the Knox Hat Building in 1981 and at that time received a building bonus for agreeing to maintain the Knox Hat Building, which was incorporated into its new building program at the site, in good condition. The 1994 plan would have permitted the bank to seek various building waivers, but not increases in bulk, for the new building in return for a major restoration program for the Knox Hart Building, but the bank, which is now part of HSBC, decided not to proceed with the new building and therefore did not start the restoration program.
The new building would continue the "saw-tooth" street-wall of 40th Street between Fifth Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas, which is punctuated by several tall buildings. Mr. Adjmi said he designed a small west wing of the new-foot-high tower to continue that up-and-down geometry of the street-wall. The new building, which is directly south of the New York Public Library would have a frontage of 20 feet on 39th Street, but 102 feet on 40th Street. Mr. Adjmi said that the new, 338-foot-high tower will have the same square footage as the 220-foot-high plan in 1991. The top of the new tower, Mr. Adjmi, whose other projects include 345 West 14th Street, 450 West 14th Street, and 40 Ganesvoort Street, said, would be illuminated at night and have its rooftop mechanical spaces enclosed in glass behind a loggia.
The new tower would be a couple of doors to the west of the 29-story tower at 450 Fifth Avenue that was erected by the Republic National Bank in 1985 and designed by Eli Attia with a staggered north facade that wraps around the former Knox Hat Building. The Knox building was designed by John H. Duncan in 1902 and sensitively remodeled into a bank building by Kahn & Jacobs in 1965.
The hotel was to have been run by Starwood Capital with The Natural Resources Defense Council as an adviser on the project.
The property runs through the block to 39th street and and been acqired in 2006 for $45 million by an affliate of Ascent Real Estte Advistors, which borrowed $43.9 million from Petra Capital Mortgage that subsequetly transfeered tht eloan to a debt security called Petro CRE CDO, acconding to court records.
Petra CRE CDO filed to foreclose on the property's defaulted loan in March, 2009.
Ascent had gotten approval from the City Planning Commission in 2008 for a special permit to erect a 31-story hotel and residential condominium project on the site in a tower designed by Morris Adjmi.
The limestone-and-glass tower would have had about 150 hotel rooms and about 64 residential condominium apartments.
The proposal sought to use a restoration plan for the former Knox Hat Building that had been approved in 1994 when the Republic National Bank intended to develop this long-vacant site. The bank had developed the large office tower directly south of the Knox Hat Building in 1981 and at that time received a building bonus for agreeing to maintain the Knox Hat Building, which was incorporated into its new building program at the site, in good condition. The 1994 plan would have permitted the bank to seek various building waivers, but not increases in bulk, for the new building in return for a major restoration program for the Knox Hart Building, but the bank, which is now part of HSBC, decided not to proceed with the new building and therefore did not start the restoration program.
The new building would continue the "saw-tooth" street-wall of 40th Street between Fifth Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas, which is punctuated by several tall buildings. Mr. Adjmi said he designed a small west wing of the new-foot-high tower to continue that up-and-down geometry of the street-wall. The new building, which is directly south of the New York Public Library would have a frontage of 20 feet on 39th Street, but 102 feet on 40th Street. Mr. Adjmi said that the new, 338-foot-high tower will have the same square footage as the 220-foot-high plan in 1991. The top of the new tower, Mr. Adjmi, whose other projects include 345 West 14th Street, 450 West 14th Street, and 40 Ganesvoort Street, said, would be illuminated at night and have its rooftop mechanical spaces enclosed in glass behind a loggia.
The new tower would be a couple of doors to the west of the 29-story tower at 450 Fifth Avenue that was erected by the Republic National Bank in 1985 and designed by Eli Attia with a staggered north facade that wraps around the former Knox Hat Building. The Knox building was designed by John H. Duncan in 1902 and sensitively remodeled into a bank building by Kahn & Jacobs in 1965.
The hotel was to have been run by Starwood Capital with The Natural Resources Defense Council as an adviser on the project.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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