A mystery Chinese investor swooped in this spring to save Vornado Realty Trust's 40-story Port Authority Bus Terminal-topping office tower with a $500 million to $700 million cash infusion. Or so we thought as we dusted off the rendering of the 1.3 million-square-foot tower's design, by British starchitect Richard Rogers. Turns out we were too hasty: the Times' Charles Bagli reports that the tower probably won't be happening after all.
So what went wrong? Vornado lost its mystery investor?revealed to be SOHO China?and the developer's exclusive right to the tower expired in August (though the Port Authority retroactively voted to extend it into early 2012). SOHO China is putting its $600 million toward a stake in office tower 299 Park Avenue instead. The project first got underway when Vornado and the Lawrence Ruben Company were chosen to develop a 35-story terminal-topping tower in 1999. The plan fell apart a year later but came back to life in 2007 with the Richard Rogers design, so we should see the next incarnation of the plan in 2019 or thereabouts.
· Plans Called Off for Tower Over Bus Terminal [NYT]
· Port Authority Office Building coverage [Curbed]
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