I'd like to know if there are new developments in the New York Stock Exchange Tower project.
Your wrong, the tower is going to be built at 900 feet, construction will
begin next year, I have a description at my site
www.geocities.com/uniqueseek but heres an article to
inform you on the status;
New York City Economic Development, with aid from its state sister agency, has decided to condemn one of lower Manhattan�s earliest skyscrapers and tear down the historic structure to make way for the exchange�s new home, a 900-foot-tall steel-and-glass tower. Negotiations over the past 18 months to purchase the ornate, beaux-arts-style building at 37 Wall St. have failed, so the development agency will take over the building that rests in the center of the block planned for the new exchange, using the same type of authority governments traditionally invoke to build highways, airports and utilities. �There�ll be a condemnation,� says Michael Carey, president of the city economic development agency. He predicts the transaction will be completed early next year. �It was always contemplated that certain parcels would be acquired through condemnation.�heres another qoute; here a qoute of hope;
Lured to Stay in New York City
Condemnation isn�t the only aid government authorities are offering the Big Board. Faced with a threat that the exchange might move to New Jersey, the city and state in December 1998 agreed to chip in more than $600 million in cash, tax incentives and other breaks for the project, which the NYSE would lease for $10 million a year. By this time next year, the city and state hope, a wrecking ball will be demolishing the 25-story building, designed by architect Francis Kimball and erected for the Trust Co. of America in the center of the financial district in 1907. Although New York historic preservation officials have declared the building eligible for listing on the national and New York registers of historic places, the building isn�t formally designated by either. As such, there is no legal barrier to its demolition. A draft of the environmental impact statement for the stock exchange project, approved last month by the state economic development corporation, concluded that the building�s destruction would have �a significant adverse effect on historic resources.� New York City development officials have scheduled a public hearing on the new exchange tower plans for Sept. 7. Although there have been periodic news reports that the NYSE lost interest in larger quarters because electronic trading networks might be driving its trading floor into obscurity, exchange spokesman Ray Pellecchia says the Big Board remains committed to the move. Pellecchia wouldn�t comment on the condemnation plans, but he says the overall government subsidies for the new exchange are an easily justifiable trade-off. �The project will be of enormous benefit to New York, enormous economic benefit,� he says.
Brand New Complex
The plan calls for construction of a base that could accommodate two 50,000-square-foot trading floors for the exchange, and an accompanying office tower with 1.2 million square feet of space for other tenants. The complex, with an estimated $727 million price tag, would be erected on the block directly east of the existing exchange and could be completed by 2006. The plan calls for demolition of three office buildings and a structure with 435 residential apartments, except for the historic J.P. Morgan building on the corner of Wall and Broad streets. The Morgan building, built as the headquarters of the Morgan Bank in 1913, is listed on the national and state historic registers. It would be preserved and converted into a visitors� center for the new exchange complex. The existing New York Stock Exchange trading floor is located in a neoclassical structure built in 1903. The exchange has agreed to make part of its existing space available for a police substation for the financial district. Aside from the 37 Wall St. building, Carey says the city economic development corporation anticipates reaching �friendly� purchase agreements with the other owners of property needed for the project � J.P. Morgan and Rockrose Development.
Not Much Opposition
�Condemnations are an unusual thing,� but not unprecedented for the New York City economic development corporation, Carey says. The city development agency also used condemnation to assist several major private building projects during the conversion of Times Square from a collection of run-down office buildings peppered with seedy bars and strip joints a decade ago, to the booming entertainment and media complex it is today. The red-brick 37 Wall St. building was constructed just three years after the current New York Stock Exchange building at the turn of the century. Its architect, Kimball, is considered a pioneer in skyscraper design, particularly the steel-skeleton high-rise, according to the planning documents for the new exchange project. Thus far, the new stock exchange project has encountered little public opposition. The New York City watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission, generally is critical of public subsidies for private developments, although it makes exceptions for unique examples like professional sports stadiums. But the group hasn�t studied the exchange plan, says its research director, Chuck Brecher. �We would probably support some subsidy,� he says. �You do this when it is clear that there is some net addition to the economy that results.�
The New York Stock Exchange may move to a site where a historic building faces demolition - and the New York Landmarks Conservancy is not standing in the way. "As preservationists," Roger Lang, a spokesman for the group told Traders Magazine, "we regret the loss of a very fine old building by Francis Hatch Kimball is part of the price the public must pay for this project."cool huh