NYC Development Plans on Display

"This development will allow us to expand our central business district," Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff said Sunday at an event to introduce the five development teams and their models. "And what we're seeing here with these five wonderful submissions is that the market is speaking and is validating the vision that we've shared for the Hudson Yards."

The models will be displayed at a storefront across from Grand Central Terminal through Dec. 3.

One proposal, from Tishman Speyer, would include a new headquarters for investment bank Morgan Stanley. Another, from Related LP, would have media and entertainment giant News Corp. as its anchor tenant. Conde Nast would be the biggest tenant under the plan submitted by the Durst Organization in a venture with Vornado Realty Trust.

The other two developers are Extell Development Co. and Brookfield Properties Developer LLC.

All of the plans include a mix of office and residential buildings, green space and cultural amenities, in accordance with guidelines the developers were asked to follow.

Extell President Gary Barnett said his project is unique because the buildings would not be on top of the rail yards.

"Our project essentially builds almost all of the structures on terra firma surrounding the yards," he said. "We're using this special bridge technology, which is essentially building suspension bridges."

Architect Rafael Pelli said the Durst plan would include a proposal for a shuttle train that could carry up to 20,000 people an hour from Pennsylvania Station.

The Brookfield plan would include two apartment towers joined midway up by a belt that would comprise a fitness center's covered running track.

Financing was not discussed Sunday, but the winner likely will have to spend about $1.5 billion to build platforms over the existing rail yards, billions of dollars in construction costs and well over $500 million for the development rights.

The city hoped its plan to develop a football stadium at the site would serve as a linchpin to host the 2012 Olympics. But residents objected to the tax burden of the $2 billion stadium, and members of a state board that rejected it worried that the planned office space would compete with development downtown at the World Trade Center site.

Doctoroff said the current plans should not elicit the same objections.

"Unlike the previous situation, where money was being contributed by the city and state to the project, in this case money will be contributed to the city and state as a result of this process," he said.

MTA Executive Director Elliot Sander said officials have had extensive discussions with community representatives and elected officials over the plans.

The proposals are to be evaluated by a committee chosen by the MTA, which runs the nation's largest mass transit system, and the Hudson Yards Development Corp., a body created to develop the site. The MTA board is to consider the recommended bid by March 2008.