BREAKING: Brookfield Not Submitting a New Bid

Brookfield Properties has announced they have not submitted a second bid for the Rail Yards site. Supplementary bids were due yesterday.
Back in January, the MTA asked the five developers to submit supplementary materials supporting their ability to lease, not buy, the 26-acre site. None of this financial information was made public.
Brookfield’s decision not to [...]

Crain’s Video: Rail Yards Developers at REBNY Gala

Crain’s caught up with four of the five Rail Yards developers at the 112th annual Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) gala.
Ric Clark from Brookfield, Stephen Ross from Related, Douglas Durst from Durst/Vornado, and Jerry Speyer from Tishman Speyer all make the case for why their development plan was the best.

News Roundup January 7-14, 2008

The Times reports that ad firm Ogilvy-Mather plans to take over a building at 11th Avenue & 47th Street, making them pioneers on the Far West side. Though, it must be noted, their building is not really all *that* close to the Rail Yards site.
Andrew Berman (he of many community activist organizations) takes out the [...]

Weekly News Roundup, December 11-18

Related Companies announces a $1.4 Billion investment by firms including Goldman Sachs and MSD Capital. While the firm’s release remarks that this news does not impact any of their current plans, including their West Side Rail Yards redevelopment proposal, the timing of their announcement is certainly convenient. The Times reports on this here.
Gothamist also picked [...]

Plans Aired to the Community at the Hudson Guild

On Monday night, over 200 interested members of the community (as well as political figures such as New York State Senator Tom Duane) gathered at the Hudson Guild at an event sponsored by Community Board 4 and the Hudson Yards Community Advocacy Coalition that included presentations from the five developers who have submitted plans for [...]

Media Round Up, December 3-10

The Real Deal weighs different developers’ treatment of the grid, the High Line and the challenges of the site.
The Observer interviews Extell’s Gary Barnett and Brookfield’s Ric Clark, and lays out developer ties to the Bloomberg administration.
Chelsea Now covers last week’s architect presentations at Cooper Union.
Atlantic Yards Report shows the contrast between this rail yards process and [...]

Video: Cooper Union Architect Presentations

On Monday, architects from the five development teams presented their designs to the public at Cooper Union. Videos of each presentation are now available. Please note these videos have been edited down for length, and the sound quality is not great.

Steven Holl for Extell

Robert AM Stern, Bernardo Fort Brescia, Eugene Kohn and Claire Weisz [...]

Comparing the Five Plans

 [click to enlarge]
A quick visual comparison of the five developer’s plans, alongside the MTA’s land use guidelines from the RFP. Note the different distribution of open space and building arrangement.