The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 95

Downtown vs. Midtown vs. Brooklyn

Mayor Bloomberg has been a strong proponent of developing the West Side of Midtown. It was the centerpiece of the NYC 2012 Olympic bid, and then the New York Jets stadium plan. Now, downtown developers are worrying that the Mayor's emphasis on Midtown will actually undermine the rebuilding of Ground Zero.

Mayor Bloomberg's plan to downsize office towers at Ground Zero while the city pushes ahead with a new business district on the West Side would be a "death knell for lower Manhattan," a top downtown rebuilding official told The Post.
"We are putting in literally billions of dollars in transit infrastructure upgrades in lower Manhattan," the official said. "We're doing that because we assured the restoration of the financial capital of the world."

But the mayor's plan to build a new West Side office district around an extension of the No. 7 subway line would create competition for the same corporate tenants being recruited for a rebuilt World Trade Center, the official said.

"It would be a death knell for lower Manhattan as a viable world financial capital," the official said.

Part of the problem is that developers think that the influx of new office, retail, and residential space within a relatively short period of time will dampen the rental price per square foot. That means that the developers wont see the kind of profits they were hoping for. In turn, that will reduce the amount of office space built because no one wants to bite the golden goose.

Throw in the spate of construction in downtown Brooklyn, and the planned Brooklyn Nets arena project, and the amount of office space that could come online in the next few years may drive down prices even further.

Plans for the West Side call for 24 million square feet of office space and 13,000 apartments. Tax revenues from the office towers will pay off a $3 billion bond to build the subway and a new boulevard between 10th and 11th avenues. Doctoroff said the city will begin selling bonds this summer, with construction of the 7-line extension to begin by November. The project is expected to create a new station at 11th Avenue and 34th Street by 2012.

The first new commercial tower is expected to go up on the West Side by 2012, with 1 million or more square feet of new space built every year afterward — even as City Hall argues there isn't enough demand for office space downtown.

Nothing quite like politics trumping urban development. The fact is that all these areas need development, not just Ground Zero. However, building at one at the expense of the others only feeds the politicization of the process. Bloomberg is clearly trying to assert dominance over city planning of major office developments because he knows that Pataki will exit stage left after November.

Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy, Freedom Tower, IFC, International Freedom Center.