Last updated: 10:22 am
September 23, 2008
Posted: 3:49 am
September 23, 2008
HOPING to turn the current financial chaos to its long-term advantage, the Durst Organization has "reached out" to media giant Condé Nast "with a proposal to stay" in its present home at 4 Times Square when its lease expires in 2019, real estate and media sources said.
The company led by Si Newhouse has previously said it will need more space than its 800,000 square feet at Douglas Durst's tower, and was to be the anchor tenant at Hudson Yards had a Durst/Vornado team won the MTA's nod for development rights there.
Those rights eventually ended up with Time Warner Center developer Related Cos.
Since then, sources said, Condé Nast has been talking both to Related about a move to the yards and to Brookfield Properties about its own development site on Ninth Avenue in the 30s.
Since the rest of 4 Times Square will be occupied by law firm Skadden Arps even after 2019, it wasn't immediately clear how Condé Nast could stay there and expand at the same time.
But a source pointed out that both the Related and Brookfield projects face public review and engineering challenges that raise questions about delivery schedules.
"Si is getting on and he wants a decision to be made soon, rather than wait until 10 years from now," the insider said.
Condé Nast's broker, CB Richard Ellis tristate CEO Mary Ann Tighe, declined comment, and calls to the offices of Durst and Brookfield were not immediately returned.
Related Cos. Chairman Stephen M. Ross politely said yesterday, "I'd rather not answer" when we asked him if Related was talking to Condé Nast.
But Ross was more than willing to talk about the Wall Street meltdown, which has hung question marks over everything down to a tiny retail space at 1796 Broadway - where sources said Prudential Douglas Elliman's Faith Hope Consolo recently nailed down a lease with Washington Mutual, a bank that's unlikely to survive.
"Too many people are too fast to want to talk doom and gloom about the New York real estate market," said Ross, who's confident about Hudson Yards but suggested a go-slow might be in the works at an Eighth Avenue development site.
"I don't think anyone has a handle on it yet.
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