Vornado Realty Trust has written off $23 million of its costs of preparing plans for the redevelopment of the Moynhan Station "East" project in a recent filing with the Securities Exchange Commission, according to an article by Eliot Brown in today's on-line edition of The New York Observer.
Vornado is a partner with the Related Companies in a joint venture that had hoped to transfer development rights to some of its properties in the vicinity of the "Moynihan Station," which is the name given to the development plans for the Farley Post Office building on Eighth Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets.
Vornado and Related had hoped to convince Madison Square Garden to relocate into the post office building and then redevelop its site and others nearby with several million square feet of commercial space.
In its filing for the three months ending March 31, 2008, Vornado indicated a $23 million write-off for its "50 % share of the two joint ventures' pre-development costs" in "connection with the abandonment of the 'arena move'/Moynihan East portions of the Farley project," according to the article.
While the filing indicated that Vornado officially considers the Garden relocation dead, the article said that "the developers have been trying to resuscitate it with more state/city intervention/loan guarantees."
"Senator Schumer," the article continued, "yesterday also called for the Moynihan Station plan to proceed with some sort of major renovation in Penn Station, starting with removing the 200,000 square feet of office space and other uses that crowd the station."
Vornado is a partner with the Related Companies in a joint venture that had hoped to transfer development rights to some of its properties in the vicinity of the "Moynihan Station," which is the name given to the development plans for the Farley Post Office building on Eighth Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets.
Vornado and Related had hoped to convince Madison Square Garden to relocate into the post office building and then redevelop its site and others nearby with several million square feet of commercial space.
In its filing for the three months ending March 31, 2008, Vornado indicated a $23 million write-off for its "50 % share of the two joint ventures' pre-development costs" in "connection with the abandonment of the 'arena move'/Moynihan East portions of the Farley project," according to the article.
While the filing indicated that Vornado officially considers the Garden relocation dead, the article said that "the developers have been trying to resuscitate it with more state/city intervention/loan guarantees."
"Senator Schumer," the article continued, "yesterday also called for the Moynihan Station plan to proceed with some sort of major renovation in Penn Station, starting with removing the 200,000 square feet of office space and other uses that crowd the station."
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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