amazon is taking one million sq ft of the citigroup tower in court square for 5k of the 25k employees and building a waterfront campus for the rest by the east river:

 

https://www.6sqft.com/see-the-waterfront-site-in-long-island-city-where-amazon-will-bring-its-new-mixed-use-campus/

^It's ridiculous that Nashville is getting an office.  They have zero transit and their airport sucks.  It's not cheap to live there.  So Cincinnati was nixed for not having a rail transit system but it didn't matter that Nashville doesn't have one. 

I'm amazed that only one of the top-10 employers in NYC is NOT a governmental unit or a hospital system. So in other words, they're not much different than Cleveland except the numbers are larger....

 

 

Jesus, even in NYC hospitals get all the money.

23 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

^It's ridiculous that Nashville is getting an office.  They have zero transit and their airport sucks.  It's not cheap to live there.  So Cincinnati was nixed for not having a rail transit system but it didn't matter that Nashville doesn't have one. 

 

Bezos must be a low key country music fan I guess. 

The Nashville office is just a token gesture by Amazon to show that they're investing in "the Heartland". Besides that, it seems quite likely that Amazon intended to go to NYC and DC the whole time and simply played cities against each other to maximize their tax breaks and gain massive amounts of free publicity in the process.

That's some token gesture. The thousands of jobs in Nashville would make them one of the top employers in any of the 3-C's. I'd take that consolation prize.

Wow, this band and this song and this video are terrible.  But if you want to see Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 1995 or 1996, here you go:

 

I believe that the band was set up on the roof of this building:

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7158646,-73.9649517,3a,75y,337.49h,112.06t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sT4SAvYQB9jas6lGzdNQgaA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

 

Edited November 19, 20186 yr by jmecklenborg

^ the funny trivia about williamsburg is the whole thing about that neighborhood gentrifying and birthing the hipster era was invented by a guy from dayton.

this incredible sequence of the recent topping off of 53w53 aka the mama tower verre:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 24, 20186 yr by mrnyc

3 hours ago, mrnyc said:

^ the funny trivia about williamsburg is the whole thing about that neighborhood gentrifying and birthing the hipster era was invented by a guy from dayton.

 

Tell us more.

6 hours ago, mrnyc said:

^ the funny trivia about williamsburg is the whole thing about that neighborhood gentrifying and birthing the hipster era was invented by a guy from dayton.

 

Well, we invent everything here so not surprised.

coldayman you may know something about this.

 

alright here's the story of dayton, w'burg and hipsters in brief.

 

there was a guy from dayton chaminade who was my spouse's older brother's best friend back in high school. his name is bill harding. he went to art school and all that and moved to nyc. he reinvented himself as gene pool, who painted and did all sorts of things, but he became very well known for a time as a sort of performance artist in the 1990s for walking around in grass suits and driving a grass car.

 

so harding/pool approached crest hardware in the heart of williamsburg about having an art show inside the hardware store among the merchandise. funny enough they agreed and it became sort of an artworld sensation that put 'the burg' on the map with artists (how soon we forget all the boroughs were practically terra incognita in those days). artists were getting gentrified out of manhattan and the east village and so they all started to make this leap east to williamsburg, brooklyn. this was the early 1990s to the early 'oughts.

 

of course soon after that decade of artsy burbling around over in brooklyn the world turned, the media picked up on it, el lay hollywood people like ashton kutcher started wearing the trucker hats, the nyc population grew, the artworld spread out around the city or left, etc., etc., and over the years the hipster era faded away as williamsburg became fully gentrified. 

 

 

 

here is a blurb from the son of the crest hardware store owner:

 

What is the Crest Art Show all about? How and when did it begin? 

The Crest Hardware art show is all about taking love for my community, my love of art, my love of hardware and welding them together to bridge a gap in this continually changing city, but Williamsburg in particular. It began in the early nineties with an artist named Gene Pool asking for some window space. We gave him an inch, he took a mile. By mile I mean 5000 square feet of retail space. Which is actually only 280 feet short of a full mile. Sorry, that's the hardware end speaking.

 

more:

http://gothamist.com/2008/06/10/joseph_franquin.php

 

after a long lull, they are having art work shows at crest again occasionally:

http://www.cresthardwarenyc.com/blog/2017/2/7/art-show-recap

 

 

 

 

somebody posted this early short video --- it was shown on pbs:

 

a nytimes article about gene pool from 1997, which was probably peak hipster days:

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/09/nyregion/forget-about-cloning-let-s-talk-gene-pool.html

As of today, the Lord & Taylor flagship on 5th Ave & 38th St. is closed. It has been at this location for over a hundred years. The current owner, Hudson's Bay Co (or simply "the Bay" as it's known in Canada), had originally planned to keep part of the location as a store after selling the building to WeWork, but it was not be. Sad. (Many years ago I had a friend who worked in the collections department and it drove him crazy when someone would refer to the store as Lord and Taylor's, like people who say Barnes and Noble's. There's no "s"! Stop that. lol) This is what was left as of yesterday (Lord and Taylor branch stores will remain open. Don't know if that means all of them)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 20196 yr by eastvillagedon

Those rugs!  When the downtown Macy's closed in Cincinnati last spring, they had tons of rugs for sale.  Like hundreds of them.  I didn't know the place even stocked rugs. 

Just now, jmecklenborg said:

Those rugs!  When the downtown Macy's closed in Cincinnati last spring, they had tons of rugs for sale.  Like hundreds of them.  I didn't know the place even stocked rugs. 

 

 

that's funny. I didn't even know Lord & Taylor had rugs either, not that I ever really shopped there that much (the men's department was on the top--10th--floor, so I rarely ventured to other parts of the store). The picture shows just a small portion of what they had to offer. I looked the price tag of one of the larger ones that was marked down 70%, so instead of a mere 25K it was now "only" $7,000! I hope it came with a certificate of authenticity. Obviously they weren't going to sell most of these rugs by the time the store closed for good, so I assume some dealer would buy them. The whole rug trade, especially those that claim to be offering Oriental or Persian rugs, always seemed kind of shady to me. 

Hmm... Is it possible that the rugs are not part of normal inventory but are being brought in by a third party vendor to take advantage of the empty space created by the store closing? At the downtown Cincinnati Macy’s location they were literally the last thing left in the store. 

Edited January 2, 20196 yr by thebillshark

...Or maybe there’s some kind of tax write-off they can get for the closing store by selling the rugs at what looks like huge discounts? 

Edited January 2, 20196 yr by thebillshark

18 minutes ago, thebillshark said:

Hmm... Is it possible that the rugs are not part of normal inventory but are being brought in by a third party vendor to take advantage of the empty space created by the store closing? At the downtown Cincinnati Macy’s location they were literally the last thing left in the store. 

 

^Yes, that is most likely the case. Liquidators bring outside product with them. That's like when Big Bear was closing all of their stores in 2004 and magically a bunch of sealed Sega Game Gear cartridges from the early '90s appeared in them. I was like like "I don't remember seeing these next to the donuts before."

Edited January 2, 20196 yr by GCrites80s

^I suspect that's what happened at Lord & Taylor. I just looked for rugs on their website and the costliest ones were a few Persian rug reproductions not even breaking the $1K mark, nothing anywhere near the price range of those I saw yesterday. 

Ask and you shall receive...yes I actually took a photo of the rug "sale" in the DT Cincinnati Macy's. 

https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/13006627/the-going-out-of--business-business

 

Quote

According to traditional dealers, local close-out sales are backed by rug wholesalers and liquidators operating out of New York, California, and Florida. The out-of-townliquidators offer to run sales for local dealers. “What they try to do is take advantage of your reputation in the community,” says Manoukian. “I spoke with one who said, "Hey, we'll take care of everything—advertising, stock, and sales—and you just sit back and take a cut of the proceeds.' The sad thing is that I may actually want to go out of business some day, and I'll end up looking like these guys.”

 

On 10/31/2018 at 12:26 AM, mrnyc said:

^ after a couple years of construction on the prince lumber site the ‘worlds largest’ starbucks is about to open too in the meatpacking. its a 25k sq ft roastery shop. the signage is up and i peeked inside. yep its yuge.

 

https://ny.eater.com/platform/amp/2016/4/5/11371750/starbucks-roastery-chelsea

this place sounds awful. 

 

Skip the Reserve Roastery and just go to a regular Starbucks

https://nypost.com/2019/01/08/skip-the-reserve-roastery-and-just-got-to-a-regular-starbucks/

 

"Employees rock pork pie hats, berets, fedoras and trilbies with varying degrees of cuteness. The crew demonstrate how the giant copper roaster works on beans from far corners such as the Galapagos Islands — for $52 for a half pound. “They’re very rare,” the saleswoman says. “We might not get them again for 10 years.”

 

I can wait. Until then, where can I just get a cup of coffee? It’s hard to figure out where, what and how to order at a “Main Bar” or an “Experience Bar,” which offer seven different brewing methods between them."

 

Yeah, they opened a Starbucks Reserve right around the corner from my place and it's pretty obnoxious. The baristas all have to wear those ridiculous hats, and they try to upsell every order to 'reserve', which is considerably more expensive and tastes about the same. It's pretentious and cold, and not at all the type of vibe I'm looking for from a coffee shop. But it's always packed from opening to close, so perhaps I'm not their target customer. Thankfully, there are plenty of other, better options in the neighborhood, including Blue Bottle which is expensive but really delicious and more low key.

^I guess I can't completely hate the place though. A month ago as I was walking through Union Square I got a complimentary 12 oz bag of coffee as a promotion for this place. Haven't tried it yet. ☕

 

 

accidentally went in as almost the very first customers on opening morning.

 

and we have not been back.

 

not because its so over the top, but because we have so many coffee shops in the neighborhood i haven't bothered.

 

here are some pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 13, 20196 yr by mrnyc

^this place looks so confusing, as the Post article suggests. I hope they were at least offering some free samples on opening day.  Did you engage in that time-honored practice of using the Starbucks restroom without ordering anything? Or was it already out of service? 

yes we sat up at the bar and the coffee was free.

 

and yes with such an odd, mish mash setup its confusing in there. 

 

by the time we left there was a line around the block already and they were limiting entry — like it was a nightclub lol.

 

i do want to go back sometime, but no rush even though its only a block away ha.

On 11/12/2017 at 12:38 PM, eastvillagedon said:

One Vanderbilt starts to rise

 

 

 

I can't tell if this has "topped off," or whatever the term is. I think it should be taller

 

 

 

  

^ no, its about 1K' up, so still a ways to go.

 

its getting close though, because i think its at or almost at the highest office floors now, so just mechanicals and the crown is left.

 

this one is one of the fastest built big towers i have ever seen, especially given all the below ground work.

1 hour ago, mrnyc said:

^ no, its about 1K' up, so still a ways to go.

 

its getting close though, because i think its at or almost at the highest office floors now, so just mechanicals and the crown is left.

 

this one is one of the fastest built big towers i have ever seen, especially given all the below ground work.

 

About the height of the planned observation deck then, but there's a "sail" on top and it goes to 1,400'

this is the observation deck I look forward to seeing most, at Hudson Yards. With my luck it will snap off when I'm on it.

https://www.hudsonyardsnewyork.com/press-releases/construction-begins-on-hudson-yards-observation-deck/

 

 

^ thats 30 hudson yards, which we have a thread for.

 

but don’t forget harry macklowe’s tower by st pats. its alleged to be 1551’ and will have an observation area with a glass slide lol. he’s 81 so i dk if he can hang on to make it happen we’ll see.

Edited February 2, 20196 yr by mrnyc

for something different, a five and a half acre park on the hudson, with a beach and with only remaining section of 13th avenue, is on the way. it was formerly a sanitation site:

 

https://ny.curbed.com/2019/1/31/18205688/manhattan-hudson-river-park-james-corner-field-operations

here is a render of the proposed macklowe st pats tower in the skyline -- along with a completed one vandy/midtown for comparison.

 

 

On 1/12/2019 at 9:42 PM, mrnyc said:

accidentally went in as almost the very first customers on opening morning.

 

and we have not been back.

 

not because its so over the top, but because we have so many coffee shops in the neighborhood i haven't bothered.

 

 

I went to the original one in Seattle. Clearly, it is meant to be a tourist attraction and not a replacement for the corner coffee shop. It was pretty cool though. Worth going once. I had a whiskey and cold brew flight. I don't really like Starbucks but I enjoyed it. 

^ i think here its mostly an amenity for google across the street, but yeah it is definately also in a great spot to be a tourist attraction. its next to the chelsea market and the highline park, as well as the meatpacking district and chelsea art galleries.

 

i have walked by since and its packed full of touristas for sure. 

 

you are reminding me to go back in sometime after work and try out the food and the bar. the weather finally broke and i do need to buy coffee beans. hmm. 

prepare ye the way of the lord ... and for a flashback of the old wtc --

 

via screenshots i took of the famous finale of the 'all for the best' sequence in the early 1970s hippy era movie godspell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

the movie version of the play was released in march 1973, so this was presumably shot in the summer or fall of 1972.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

here is the youtube clip of it, which also includes lincoln center, times square and midtown. kind of surprised they don't put the cityscape to work in more scenes like this in movies. maybe they do? i dk. 

 

 

 

 

 

wait, i guess the car chase scene in the french connection is another example. 

 

 

 

central jersey city, nj is getting a couple more towers added to the journal square tower.

 

the second structure is well under construction.

 

 

 

Journal Squared is already transforming the surrounding neighborhood. When did you acquire that site and how many more years will we have to wait until all three towers are finished?

 

KRE began assembling the Journal Squared site in 2007. When finished, the mixed-use development, which is designed by Hollwich Kushner and Handel Architects, will bring a total of 1,840 rental apartments to Journal Square, a transit-centric neighborhood on the brink of a major revitalization. We broke ground on the first tower in 2014 and opened it to residents in 2017. Last year, we broke ground on the second tower, which will top out at 70 stories, making it the tallest of the three buildings. It’s slated to open in 2021, and we expect to break ground on the third tower that same year. If this cycle continues, the entire development should reach completion by 2024.

 

more:

https://newyorkyimby.com/2019/01/jonathan-kushner-tells-yimby-journal-squareds-three-skyscrapers-will-fully-open-by-2024-more.html

I just came across this news while on my Fidelity investment website (hence the fidelity.com link).  It should be viewable to anyone, if it isn't please add a different news-site link:

 

Amazon pulls plug on New York City headquarters

BY DAVID SHEPARDSON AND JONATHAN ALLEN, REUTERS

 

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN ) abruptly scrapped plans to build a headquarters in New York after opposition from local politicians and some of its would-be neighbors, the third most-valuable public U.S. company said on Thursday. ... Amazon's search for a second headquarters, which it described as HQ2, was deemed a massive, year-long public relations success, garnering worldwide publicity and interest from cities across the United States and Canada.

 

Some residents of the Queens neighborhood mounted protests.  Politicians from the Democratic Party's leftward flank, including the freshman U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, decried the state's promise to give the company, controlled by the world's richest man, billions of dollars in tax breaks. ... The proposal also ran into opposition from local politicians who opposed the $2.8-billion in incentives promised to Amazon in a deal secretly negotiated by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

 

Amazon said Thursday it did not plan to re-open the yearlong search that drew 238 proposals from cities across North America.  Nashville, a finalist that was awarded a consolation prize of a 5,000-employee location, said it remained open to an expansion of Amazon's plans in Tennessee. ... Chicago, Miami and Newark are among the passed-over finalists that have expressed interest in another chance to become the home of an Amazon HQ2 project.

 

MORE:  https://www.fidelity.com/news/article/top-news/201902141202RTRSNEWSCOMBINED_KCN1Q32F9-OUSBS_1

Here's another couple links to this NYC HQ2 news:

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-cancels-new-york-hq2-2019-2

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/nyregion/amazon-hq2-queens.html

^ haha i saw that -- they just added 2k new office jobs at 5 manhattan sq west in the hudson yards, so its not like they are totally bailing.

yeow! crown heights brooklyn is getting a mini-city skyline.

 

construction is to be between oct 2021 to apr 2024.

 

this is in the neighborhood east of prospect park:

 

 

 

 

 

 

more:

https://newyorkyimby.com/2019/02/multi-towered-mega-project-revealed-at-960-franklin-avenue-in-crown-heights-brooklyn.html

3 hours ago, mrnyc said:

^ haha i saw that -- they just added 2k new office jobs at 5 manhattan sq west in the hudson yards, so its not like they are totally bailing.

It is still a very bad look for NYC imo.

That's the whitest rendering I've ever seen of something in Crown Heights...

crown heights is losing melanin faster that trump is losing pesos to pay for his wall.

 

just look at that render foreground, becky is pointing out her new apt and deshawn is getting out of there as fast as he can.

south street seaport doings downtown -- from yesterday morning

 

 

one seaport residences  

670'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

pier 17 -- this has the new espn broadcast station inside
feb 16

 

 

 

 

 

 

pier 15

 

 

 

 

 

 

seaport

 

 

 

 

 

 

r.i.p. 80 south street

an apt tower here was supposed to be 1436', but the chinese investors tanked, so i think its a dead duck 

 

 

Edited February 18, 20196 yr by mrnyc

Dead duck in its current incarnation, but definitely not dead long. Hundreds of millions in consolidated air rights means someone will surely buy it very quickly. Expect a building of similar height (possibly even the same design) to rise on that site at some point in the nearish future.

or maybe that gets split back up? something will go there no doubt. seems like a risky site for something like a supertall though. we'll see.

Haven't the NIMBYS gotten passed some kind of resolutions limiting the height of new structures(wasn't the old 80 South Street grandfathered in)?  If not I would not be surprised to see Gale Brewer throw her(considerable)bovine weight behind blocking another supertall proposal for the site.