Various West Side groups are trying to sue the West 30th Street heliport into oblivion, because it's way too noisy and pollutey for a park. Plus, the Hudson River Park is only permitted to have a heliport for non-tourist/non-recreation purposes, and this one is pretty much all tourists, all the time. Heliport operator Air Pegasus knows the chips are stacked against it, so the company has a plan: While the Hudson River Park Trust figures out where to stick them, why not move the heliport 100 feet offshore onto a pair of barges? This idea is totally awesome, if only because it birthed the rendering seen above. Has the West Side Highway ever looked more adorable?
· Heliport floats barge idea, but critics not onboard [Villager]

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Economic slowdown be damned, Brookfield Properties is moving full steam ahead on its gigantic Manhattan West office park on the west side rail yards that aren't quite the West Side Rail Yards. The company has enlisted the services of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill—the same firm behind the two signature towers of Brookfield's Hudson Yards bid—to design two more huge office towers for Manhattan West, which, confusingly, is just to the east. At top right, a rendering of the new buildings, as well as a refresher on the hypothetical One and Two Hudson Place at Hudson Yards. Our initial gut reaction was that SOM is being lazy, but then we realized the genius. Now Brookfield has to win the development rights for Hudson Yards, just so the design becomes contextual.
· Brookfield Taps SOM for Other West Side Rail Yards [The Real Estate]
· Brookfield Births 'Manhattan West' on Hudson Yards' Doorstep [Curbed]
· Yardsmania #1: Brookfield Properties Goes Splittsville [Curbed]

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In a day filled with West Side development news, the biggest piece of intel just hit the wire. Brookfield Properties, the massive commercial landlord and one of the companies bidding on the Hudson Yards, has announced it will develop the other West Side rail yards, right smack in between the Hudson Yards and Penn Station. Bloomberg reports that Brookfield will start constructing a platform over the rails in June, and three acres and 5.4 million square feet of fresh new office and mixed-use develop space will be created. The $600 million project has been dubbed Manhattan West, and the platform is expected to be completed in late 2010. The first tower could be finished by 2013. The site runs from 31st to 33rd Streets, and Ninth Avenue to the Lincoln Tunnel approach. Yardsmania!
· Brookfield Properties Reports Strong Performance and Growth in 2007 [Yahoo! Finance]
· Yardsmania #1: Brookfield Properties Goes Splittsville [Curbed]

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With the hoarding of air rights from Broadway theaters now complete, Boston Properties has come clean about its office building plans for Eighth Avenue between 54th and 55th Streets. Revealed today by the Post's Steve Cuozzo, 250 West 55th Street will be a 39-story tower with a glass curtain wall (right; click to expand), set back from a base that will include plenty of stores for retail-deprived Hell's Kitchen residents. The design is by Skidmore Owings & Merrill's Chris Cooper, and Boston—led by Mort Zuckerman—says tenants will be able to move in by January 2010. Those tenants are still a mystery, for now. The building is close to 1775 Broadway, currently suffering from a sad identity crisis brought on by a narsty bite from the glass bug. It will also be deliciously close to Norman Foster's new Hearst tower, creating some sort of Upper Hell office district. The lunch scene at Balsley Park just got a lot more crowded, sunlight-deprived office drones!
· Midtown Masterpiece [NYP]
· The Air Up There: More Development Rights For Sale [Curbed]

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With a decision on the Hudson Yards bids supposedly one month away, the MTA has chucked a curveball right at the groins of competing developers Extell, Related, Tishman Speyer, Vornado/Durst and Brookfield Properties. Over the weekend, Charles Bagli reported in the Times that the MTA has cold feet about selling the 26 acres of prime waterfront land currently serving as the West Side rail yards. Now, the MTA has two new requests: the winning developer gets a 99-year lease, and the MTA gets an "equity-type interest" in any project built on the land. Whoa now! It's like the cash-strapped MTA woke up one day and was like, "Oh crap, we forgot about the billions more we could be making off this one piece of land!" But how will the developers react to these new demands? As Bagli points out, the move comes right when commercial developers are growing uneasy about the market and the economy. One anonymous bidder told the Times, "I think these people don't realize what the financial climate is like." Another classic case of the unpredictable MTA doing its thing, or an awesome muscle move because—in the end—the winner will pay whatever it takes to get the deal done?
· New Bids Are Sought for Building on Railyards [NYT]
· Yardsmania Nonshocker: Underdogs Still Underdogs [Curbed]
· Yardsmania: Is Related's Murdochville Inevitable? [Curbed]
· Curbed Poll Reminder: The Hudson Yards Winner Is... [Curbed]

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Yesterday, in front of a large audience hungry for some decisive action on the development proposals for the athletic fields of Pier 40, the Hudson River Park Trust did what they've done all along during this lengthy process—pretty much nothing. The Trust was not comfortable with awarding the rights to either of the two "official" bids, Related's Cirque du Soleil-loaded "Vegas on the Hudson" (above) or the People's Pier offer of private/public day camps. Nor was the Trust willing to hand the thing off to the Pier 40 Partnership—the coalition of local parents who jumped in a little late and rallied last weekend with Molto Mario on hand. Everyone got sent back to the drawing board, and the Trust will meet again in March. It would appear that the delay benefits the parents, who now have more time to get their act together. Some board members mused aloud on a dream scenario in which the bidders come together on a joint plan that generates lots of revenue for the park and pleases the community. Yeah, we'll see about that. The one thing everyone agreed on was that at least the Hudson River Park is better off than the oft-delayed Brooklyn Bridge Park, which has to resort to sticking luxury condos on park land to pay for stuff. Burn!
· Pier 40 Rally Recap: More Like Cirque du So-Lame! [Curbed]
· Pier 40, Now With Safer Street Crossing! [Curbed]
· Vegas on the Hudson May Be Dead in the Water [Curbed]

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For months, we've wondered what companies Vornado was luring to Harlem Park, the mind-exploding new office building planned for 125th Street and Park Avenue. Since it would be the first Class A office tower built in Harlem in decades, we assumed Vornado was swinging for the fences. And how! Charles Bagli reports in the Times that at yesterday's Planning Commission hearing on the controversial 125th Street rezoning proposal, Vornado revealed that Major League Baseball will base its new cable network out of the building. Vornado is also negotiating with the Inner City Broadcasting Network radio conglomerate to take some of space. The rezone would limit building height to 290 feet on the north side of 125th Street, and Harlem Park is slated for 305 feet, including 40 additional feet for satellite equipment and antennas. Vornado would need a height variance for the 21-story building, or, if denied, they could pull the plug on the whole thing and deny the people of Harlem the big stack of boxes they so richly deserve. And that, friends, would be a tragic swing-and-a-miss.
· Office Tower to Rise in Harlem for Baseball TV Network [NYT]
· 125th St. development wants to break proposed height limit [TRD]
· Harlem's Box Actively Recruiting [Curbed]

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