For the last few years, Jean Nouvel's planned Tower Verre?slated for 53 West 53rd Street near the Museum of Modern Art?has been making the kind of progress that doesn't require any money. In other words, developer Hines filed new plans, and some new renderings (shown below the jump) surfaced, but nothing got built. That might be about to change.
The Journal has news of the gamechanger: the project has gotten $1 billion in financing. The money comes from a few sources in Asia?the Kwee family, billionaires in Singapore, are investing $300 million in the building, and a group of Asian banks plans to lend another $860 million. Construction will probably start next year on the tower, which will include 145 luxury condos and three floors of new gallery space for MoMA. Residents, if all finally goes as planned, should be able to move in in 2018.
The project has faced a long slog to approval. Nouvel's initial scheme called for a 1,250-foot building, which met with approval from neither the City Council nor the neighbors. (A hotel was once part of the plans, too.) The City Council ultimately decided that Nouvel needed to chop 200 feet off the building's top, and it's that 1,050-foot version that will rise thanks to this new cash infusion.
· Singapore investors back New York tower [WSJ]
· MoMA Tower coverage [Curbed]
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