Mecca To Get World's Biggest Hotel

Via the Guardian:

Four helipads will cluster around one of the largest domes in the world, like sideplates awaiting the unveiling of a momentous main course, which will be jacked up 45 storeys into the sky above the deserts of Mecca. It is the crowning feature of the holy city’s crowning glory, the superlative summit of what will be the world’s largest hotel when it opens in 2017. With 10,000 bedrooms and 70 restaurants, plus five floors for the sole use of the Saudi royal family, the £2.3bn Abraj Kudai is an entire city of five-star luxury, catering to the increasingly high expectations of well-heeled pilgrims from the Gulf. Modelled on a “traditional desert fortress”, seemingly filtered through the eyes of a Disneyland imagineer with classical pretensions, the steroidal scheme comprises 12 towers teetering on top of a 10-storey podium, which houses a bus station, shopping mall, food courts, conference centre and a lavishly appointed ballroom.

According to Euromonitor, Mecca ranks 17th in international visitors annually.

Comcast Replaces G.E. Sign On 30 Rock

A friend of mine took this photo today from his office across from 30 Rock. If you look closely you'll see the nearly-installed Comcast name. Last June the New York Times reported on the sign change:

Comcast, which last year bought General Electric’s remaining 49 percent stake in NBCUniversal, applied for a “certificate of appropriateness” from the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to replace G.E.’s 24-foot-high initials on 30 Rockefeller Plaza. G.E., now based in Fairfield, Conn., has long had a presence in New York. Whether another name change will be embraced by the public is arguable. It’s been a quarter-century since the two glowing red letters were installed, yet many New Yorkers still refer to it as the RCA Building, after the company that founded the NBC network. The RCA name had capped the 70-story Manhattan landmark, which at 850 feet amounts to the city’s tallest billboard (the MetLife Building is considered second), for more than 50 years. When the original letters were first illuminated in 1937, they were hailed as the loftiest neon sign on the planet.

Facebook Moves Into New Office Building With Nine-Acre Park On Its Roof

From Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook page:

Today we moved into our new Facebook building in Menlo Park, California. Our goal was to create the perfect engineering space for our teams to work together. We wanted our space to create the same sense of community and connection among our teams that we try to enable with our services across the world. To do this, we designed the largest open floor plan in the world — a single room that fits thousands of people. There are lots of small spaces where people can work together, and it’s easy for people to move around and collaborate with anyone here. On the roof is a 9-acre park with walking trails and many outdoor spaces to sit and work. The building itself is pretty simple and isn’t fancy. That’s on purpose. We want our space to feel like a work in progress. When you enter our buildings, we want you to feel how much left there is to be done in our mission to connect the world.

The main room reportedly houses cubicles for 2800 staffers. Which probably feels like working in an airport terminal. More photos here.

Matt Drudge Buys $2M Arizona Mansion

Via Gossip Extra:

Internet arsonist Matt Drudge, who owns a sprawling property on the edge of The Everglades near Miami, just plunked down $1.9 million cash for a bunker-like house in the Arizona desert near Phoenix. With the purchase the web aggregator, 48, will be living part-time in the jurisdiction of civil rights-busting Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a favorite on his Drudge Report. Drudge has been moving quite a bit of real estate as of late. Over the past two years, he bought two large adjacent properties in the Redland agricultural area on SW 157th Avenue in southwest Miami-Dade County for a total $2.1 million.

More photos are at the link.

New York City Issues Multiple Violations Over Sign At Harlem Hate Church

Via DNA Info:

A city-issued violation could force the controversial Atlah Worldwide Church to take down its controversial sign — which often displays homophobic and racist messages — after multiple failed attempts by critics who tried to pressure the church to put a stop to what they called hate speech. The church on 123rd Street and Lenox Avenue — which is a landmarked building — was hit with five violations Thursday for altering the structure without permits, according to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Atlah’s infamous sign, which Pastor James David Manning uses to broadcast messages like “Jesus would stone homos,” and “Obama has released the homo demons on the black man,” was installed without the commission's authorization, spokeswoman Damaris Olivo said. The violations were issued because the sign was erected without approval, not because of the content of the messages it displayed, Olivo said.

Pastor James David "Semen Lattes" Manning has been ordered to appeared for a hearing before the Landmarks Commission on May 4th. Besides the sign, violations were issued for the unpermitted changes of installing a fence on Lenox Avenue and removing a balcony in the church.

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: In the last few months Manning has declared that Starbucks laces their lattes with "sodomite semen" (which can get women pregnant), that former President George H.W. Bush has had "anal sex with 100 men," that all gay Americans will "become cannibals" by next year, that Islamists are justified to execute homosexuals, that Justin Bieber is a transgender man, and that Christian preachers should call gay men "faggots" as often as possible. High-profile anti-gay figures regularly appear on Manning's YouTube show, including Peter LaBarbera.

MAP: Salary Needed To Buy A Home

From the Washington Post:

Here’s definitive proof that San Francisco’s real estate market is insane. HSH.com, a mortgage research site, has estimated how much salary you need to earn to afford the principal, interest, taxes and insurance payments on a median-priced home in 27 metro areas. On a national scale, a buyer who puts 20 percent down would need to earn a salary of $48,604 to afford the median-priced home in America. But that total varies a lot from city to city. Pittsburgh, Cleveland, St. Louis and Cincinnati rank as the most affordable metros in which to buy a new home – HSH.com estimates that you can buy the median home while making less than $34,000 – while New York, Los Angeles and San Diego are at the high end, requiring salaries of nearly $90,000 or more. But the most expensive city by far is San Francisco, where the site estimates you would need to make $142,448 to buy the median home in the area.

NEWARK: City Stresses That Real Estate Sale Is Open To Same-Sex Couples

A curious press release from the city of Newark:

Newark, NJ – Mayor Ras J. Baraka, the Newark Municipal Council, and Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Baye Adofo-Wilson announced today that the City of Newark will sell municipally-owned vacant lots city-wide for $1,000 each to couples seeking to construct homes on them, in a “Valentine’s Land Sale Day.” The sale will take place at Newark City Hall on Saturday, February 14 from 9 a.m. through 12 p.m.

WHAT: Newark Valentine’s Day Land Sale, in which municipally-owned vacant lots will be sold to couples—straight or LGBT—for $1,000 each as part of the City’s “Live Newark” program.

As part of the City’s “Live Newark” program, the lots will be sold for $1,000 each, with buyers required to make a $500 down payment and pay the additional $500 at closing. They are responsible for all closing costs, and must submit a City Planning Board approved site plan to close on the property, have a commitment letter from a financial institution and/or proof of cash to cover the cost of the infill new construction to close on the property, and complete that construction within 18 months of closing.

The lots are available for purchase for any couple, straight or LGBT, from anywhere. The couple must live in the property for five years after issuance of the Certificate of Occupancy. All sales must be approved by the Municipal Council.

I'm not aware of same-sex couples having been denied the right to buy property in Newark, so this seems like an odd way to promote urban redevelopment. Is there a backstory here that I'm missing?

Schock's Worst Week Gets Worser

From Blue Nation Review:

The month before the 2012 elections, Congressman Schock sold his house to a major Republican donor who was also one of his campaign supporters for a price that appears to far exceed the market value at the time. Ali Bahaj – then a Vice President at Caterpillar – and his wife Gloria have donated more than $45,000 over the last decade to the Caterpillar PAC and various Republican officeholders – including Congressman Schock. In fact, Federal Election Commission records show that Mr. and Mrs. Bahaj each made the maximum allowable donation to Aaron Schock’s campaign in 2008. Congressman Schock on October 16, 2012 sold his home to the Bahajs for $925,000. That’s more than three times the tax assessed value of the property. Zillow estimates that the house was worth approximately $695,000 that month. It’s possible Congressman Schock just got incredibly lucky finding the right buyer to throw him a life raft as homeowners around him were drowning. But it begs the question: Was this transaction more than just luck?

Hit the link for comparisons to other recent home sales on that street. (Tipped by JMG reader TJ)

Architectural Digest Profiles Harlem Home Of Neil Patrick Harris & David Burtka

Via the Huffington Post:

Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka are giving Architectural Digest readers some major real estate envy, showing off their five-story Manhattan townhouse in the magazine's March issue. The couple, who tied the knot in Italy last September, told the magazine that they began searching for a New York abode once Harris' stint on "How I Met Your Mother" began to wrap in 2013. Although they'd been living in Los Angeles for nearly a decade by that point, Harris and Burtka always intended to head east with twins Gideon Scott and Harper Grace, and eventually settled on the townhouse, which is located on Fifth Avenue in New York's Harlem neighborhood.

See the article here.

Fire Island Business District Auctions To Manhattan Hotelier Ian Reisner For $10M

Via the New York Times:

A strip of commercial real estate along the harbor in Fire Island Pines sold for $10.1 million at auction on Thursday to developers with plans to continue the revival of a former mecca for closeted gay men. The sale price was well below the $25 million the previous owners sought when they placed it on the market last fall, and below the $17 million they paid for it in 2010. In a deal hammered out over more than six hours, the property was bought by Ian Reisner, who also owns the Out NYC, a hotel on West 42nd Street in Manhattan that focuses on a gay clientele. The deal is expected to close in February.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Reisner said he, his business partner and a small team of investors planned to spend $4 million over the next 18 months to “renovate and rejuvenate” the property, which includes a hotel, a nightclub, a restaurant, a bar and retail space. The Pavilion nightclub in Fire Island Pines was rebuilt after a 2011 fire and reopened, but in the interim the crowd moved on. “My idea for the Out was to have a place for L.G.B.T., because we didn’t have that at the time,” said Mr. Reisner, who said he has been visiting Fire Island Pines since he came out as gay in 1989. “The Pines is the Out.”

Reisner was last in the news back in October when a 25 year-old Hell's Kitchen club manager died of an apparent drug overdose in his $25M Central Park South penthouse.

NEW YORK: Dem Assembly Speaker To Be Arrested On Corruption Charges

Federal authorities are expected to arrest Democratic New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver today on charges of corruption.Via the New York Times:

The investigation that led to the expected charges against Mr. Silver, a Democrat from the Lower East Side of Manhattan who has served as speaker for more than two decades, began after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in March abruptly shut down an anticorruption commission he had created in 2013. Details of the specific charges to be brought against Mr. Silver were unclear on Wednesday night, but one of the people with knowledge of the matter said they stemmed from payments that Mr. Silver received from a small law firm that specializes in seeking reductions of New York City real estate taxes. The total amount of the payments was unclear, but another person has said they were substantial and were made over several years. Mr. Silver failed to list the payments from the firm, Goldberg & Iryami, on his annual financial disclosure filings with the state, as required.

Several New York outlets have observed that the billionaire condo owners in One57, one of Manhattan's latest supertalls, will likely reap a large property tax break due to Silver's intervention. Last week the 90th floor penthouse of One57 sold for a record-setting $100M.

RELATED:  Multiple Democratic members of the New York legislature have been arrested and convicted on various charges in recent years. In 2013 former Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith was arrested by the FBI on charges that he tried to buy his way onto the New York City mayoral ballot. Also that year Sen. Pedro Espada was arrested on corruption charges that he blamed on having been molested by a man when he was a child. One month later Sen. John Sampson surrendered to the FBI on embezzlement charges. In 2012 Sen. Hiram Monserrate was convicted on campaign finance charges. Also that year Sen. Shirley Huntley was charged with funneling public money into a charity she operated. And in the case most-closely followed here on JMG, in 2011 closeted Sen. Carl Kruger pleaded guilty to charges that he and his gynecologist boyfriend had taken over $1M in bribes to fund fund an extravagant lifestyle which included a garish waterfront mansion, a luxury yacht, and a Bentley.

$100M Condo Sale Sets NYC Record

Via the New York Daily News:

It’s the crown jewel of ‘Billionaires’ Row.’ A palatial apartment on 57th St. has broken the record for the most expensive apartment ever sold in Manhattan. A mystery buyer dropped a staggering $100.47 million on the penthouse apartment, which occupies the entire 89th and 90th floors of One57, the high-end apartment tower overlooking Central Park at 157 W. 57th St., according to city records. The property is the first single-family home to sell for more than $100 million in the city’s history. The previous record for a closed deal was held by Ekaterina Rybolovleva, daughter of Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who paid $88 million for a condo at 15 Central Park West nearly four years ago. While the $100 million closing price set a new record, the buyer actually got better value than Rybolovlev. The deal amounts to around $9,000 a square foot, compared with the $13,000 a foot paid by the Russian scion. The jaw-dropping, 11,000-square-foot pad has six bedrooms, seven bathrooms and two powder rooms, not to mention stellar Central Park and city views.

RELATED: Last week the New York Times took at look at how many of these jillion-dollar units sit empty after being sold.

Headline Of The Day

Details.

NYC Apartment Rents For $500K/Month

It's a new record. Via the New York Observer:

A full-floor rental of New York’s Pierre Hotel that was listed for $500,000 a month has found a tenant, according to the listing agents. To boot, the same renter has also reserved a separate $150,000-a-month suite for guests. Jonathan Miller, president of appraisal firm Miller Samuel, said the $500,000-a-month listing sets a record for New York City residential leasing. Located on the 39th floor of the luxury hotel, the full-floor listing has 4,786 square feet of living space, six bedrooms and 6½ bathrooms, including the Presidential Suite. The unit overlooks Central Park, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir and the George Washington Bridge, among other sights. The less expensive unit is the Getty Suite, a 1,015-square-foot apartment on the 10th floor with a 920-square-foot terrace “for an extended family-entourage situation,” Ms. Bateman said. Amenities include a language-specific butler and concierge service and a chauffeur-driven Jaguar.

Manhattan's Coming New Skyline

The New York Daily News has published a recap of Manhattan's insane boom in skyscraper construction. Embiggen the bottom image for a tally on the coming supertalls, several of which will eclipse the Empire State Building's 1250 feet. The supertall in the center of the top image, 111 West 57th, will be the world's skinniest skyscaper at 1350 feet tall and only 43 feet wide. With only 100 units, most of that tower's apartments will be floor-through. The building on the far right, One57, was recently completed. The bankster that bought its 13,500sf triplex penthouse for $90M is already trying to flip it. (Tipped by JMG reader Ed)

NEW YORK CITY: $165M Park Planned For Hudson River Piers In Chelsea

Via Gothamist:

A crumbling old Hudson River pier once used by ocean liners like the Lusitania will be torn down and replaced by a 2.7 acre park on the water featuring rolling hills and an outdoor amphitheater. Mayor de Blasio is expected to reveal further details about the park at a press conference this morning, but the Hudson River Park Trust has revealed that the park will be largely financed by a foundation formed by the billionaire couple Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg. “New York has always reminded me of Venice, so I am happy the time has come to properly honor its waterways,” Diane von Furstenberg said in a statement. “What better than a park on the city’s western bank to rest, watch a sunset or a performance?” The talented producer Scott Rudin, theater directors George Wolfe and Stephen Daldry, and British theater executive Kate Horton will oversee the performance spaces, with Diller committing to fund cultural events there for 20 years.

The project will be built at Pier 55 and $35M will come from the city and state. Hit the link for more renderings.

RELATED: Meanwhile next door at Pier 57 (the site of the 2012 NYC Pride Pier Dance) a $200M makeover is due for a spring 2015 unveiling. That project, dubbed SuperPier, was first reported to include "the world's most sought after retailer, restaurant, and lifestyle brands, fused with the most promising emerging talents in food, fashion, film, art and other creative fields." More recent reports, however, indicate that much of the complex will now be devoted to office space.

Video From Manhattan's New Supertall

Via Mashable:

The new 432 Park Avenue is the tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere. It's the first in a wave of new super-tall apartment buildings coming to New York’s skyline. Its top-story penthouse, which recently sold for around $95 million, boasts a view of the city that one would usually need a helicopter to behold.

The notation at 1:00 freaks me out.

(Tipped by JMG reader Ray)

Next Manhattan Supertall: One Vanderbilt

As I've noted in several recent posts, Manhattan is going through an unprecedented boom of new supertall skyscrapers, many of which are mixed-use hotel/retail/condo combos. New York YIMBY provides a look at One Vanderbilt, which will loom over Grand Central Terminal on Manhattan's east side.

Among New York’s existing supertalls, the 1,450-foot building will be closest to the Chrysler, which is just a few blocks to the east, but separated enough for continued distinction. The Kohn Pedersen Fox-designed tower will dominate the vicinity, standing over 600 feet taller than the neighboring MetLife Building, which has dominated perspectives of Grand Central Terminal for four decades. Future neighbors will likely equal or surpass One Vanderbilt, given the inevitability of a Midtown East re-zoning, which has been delayed but not denied. If residential could be encouraged, aiding Midtown East’s transition into a 24-hour neighborhood, towers even taller than SL Green’s impending icon would become all but inevitable.

One Vanderbilt will be 200 feet taller than the Empire State Building, whose height will also be eclipsed by other towers either announced or already under construction.

More Details On Nordstrom Supertall

New York YIMBY has some new details about the planned Nordstrom tower, which will be one of the class of coming Manhattan skyscrapers that the press has dubbed "super-skinny supertalls."

An elevation profile gives a look inside the tower, and at its different components, which range from a Nordstrom at the base, to a hotel, and condominiums on the uppermost levels. They will peek above the future 220 Central Park South, just across the street, and culminate nearly 1,500 feet above street level, becoming the highest residences in New York City. Taken in the context of the cityscape, the cantilever over the Art Students League is invisible, hidden beneath the forest of surrounding buildings. 217 West 57th’s defining feature will be sheer height, epitomized by the spires sitting atop the tower. Even if the final number does measure 1,775 feet — just a foot shy of One World Trade Center — the elevation of Nordstrom will make it the tallest point in the New York region, as the site is approximately 100 feet above sea level, whereas its Downtown rival sits just a dozen feet above the typical high tide mark.

A breakdown of the supertall's 92 stories is at the link.

NYC Luxury Condo To Rival Height Of WTC

Several skyscrapers now going up on the south end of Central Park in midtown will eclipse the height of the Empire State Building. Today New York YIMBY reveals a similar "super-luxury" condo tower planned for our billionaire overlords in the financial district.

YIMBY has the reveal for 125 Greenwich Street, which will become Downtown’s tallest residential skyscraper; a tipster close to the development passed along images and schematics confirming the tower’s significant growth spurt, and it will stand 1,356 feet tall. The project was formerly known as 22 Thames, but traded hands earlier this year, when Michael Shvo and Bizzi & Partners purchased the site for $185 million; the deal closed last week, signaling that plans are close to moving forward. Rafael Vinoly designed the original 961-foot tower for the site, and he has been retained as the architect; the new version will top-out just a dozen feet shy of One World Trade Center’s roof, making it the second tallest building in Lower Manhattan — and the first Downtown residential skyscraper to rival the supertalls of 57th Street. The transition from rentals to condominiums explains the sudden bump in height. 432 Park Avenue’s oblique Downtown sibling will be similarly slim, soaring 77 stories at a pencil-like width. The floor count has only gone up by seven, and the majority of the height increase can be attributed to the enormous ceilings; slab heights are 13 feet through the 38th floor, 16 feet from 40-65, and an enormous 24 feet from 67 through 77.

Earlier this summer Vanity Fair published the below look at the "superskinny supertalls" going up in midtown. Embiggen for the details. I don't even want to think about how much those suckers will sway at the top.

RELATED: Very tall buildings are typically constructed to sway in the wind at a maximum of 1/500th of their height.  Toronto's CN Tower, for example, reports a sway of  "three feet, four inches from center" at the Sky Pod observation deck level. That sway takes place under very high winds and is usually much less. But still.