Portman’s New York Marriott Marquis

Planning for the New York Marriott Marquis was first announced in 1972 when Mayor John Lindsay approached John C. Portman, a prominent architect and real estate developer based out of Atlanta, to design a major hotel in Times Square. The project, which was part of a larger campaign to redevelop the crime-ridden neighborhood, was co-developed by Portman and Marriott International 10 years later.

After three years of construction, the $350 million Marquis officially opened its doors in October 1985 with a grand opening celebration in the hotel’s distinctive atrium. With 1,946 guest rooms and suites, the hotel was the first major project of the Times Square redevelopment and is often credited as the starting point of the neighborhood’s commercial renaissance.

Located on Broadway between 45^th and 46^th streets, the hotel sits on the former site of five historic theaters – the Helen Hayes, the Morosco, the Astor, the Bijou and the Gaiety. As a result, part of the project’s approval required the inclusion of a new theater on the property, the Marquis Theater. In addition to the 1,500-seat theater, the hotel boasts a ballroom and 80,000 additional square feet of meeting, banquet and exhibition space.

The 49-story tower is best known for its atrium lobby, which rises 45 stories to the city’s only revolving restaurant. The design, first popularized by Portman in 1967 with the Atlanta Hyatt Regency, represented the future of commercial architecture. With subsequent projects like the Marriott Marquis hotel in Atlanta, the Westin Bonaventure in downtown Los Angeles and the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, Portman made a name for himself as an innovative architect, reinventing hotel design with his trademark atria, high-tech glass elevators and revolving rooftop lounges.

Although it struggled with a 78 percent occupancy in its first full year of operation, the Marriott Marquis still stands today as one of the largest and busiest hotels in New York City and continues to attract guests to one of the world’s most iconic travel destinations.

As counsel to the Mayor’s Mid-Town Office of Development, Leonard Grunstein worked on the Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG) application that permitted the development of the hotel in the early 1980s.

Letter to the Editor: De Blasio And Affordable Housing

In a letter to the editor of Gotham Gazette article, “De Blasio Pins Affordable Housing Hopes On Mandatory Inclusionary”, Leonard Grunstein advises Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, that mandating the construction of middle-income housing only to city-owned land, could be an alternative.

He notes the article correctly highlights the challenges of requiring affordable housing. The highlights include: a possible domino effect that would create less affordable housing, due to slowing of new development of market-rate housing; tenants facing extra construction costs so that owners can make up for loss incurred by the affordable units; and lastly building to accommodate more people puts more strain on public service, who would need to plan for more schools and better infrastructure.

The policy would require developers to have a percentage of their building’s units as permanent affordable apartments. Developers who participated, would receive increased building heights and tax breaks.  Currently there is similar version that is optional.  Many developers have chosen to opt out of this policy; does this foreshadow what is to come if the policy became mandatory?

In his alternative solution, Grunstein suggests:

“One alternative de Blasio should consider is to mandate the construction of middle-income housing only in the development of city-owned land.  The city successfully took this tact with Seward Park, a strip of city-owned land on the Lower East Side, by obligating RFP respondents to make at least half of the housing units there affordable. Refining the requirements to be more capital market friendly may have enabled an even greater amount of middle-income units.”

If de Blasio followed through, it would strengthen New York’s middle class.  It would create a need to work together with the real estate industry.

Read Leonard Grunstein’s full letter here.

Leonard Grunstein: Bill De Blasio Should Mandate Affordable Housing

Leonard Grunstein gives insight on Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio‘s plan to increase the amount affordable housing in NYC.  While de Blasio’s plan is praiseworthy, Grunstein points out the plan is also creating apprehension within the real estate industry.  Grunstein stresses there is a vital need for more more middle-income housing in NYC, but current efforts offer small incentive to developers to build affordable housing.

“More can be done in terms of zoning bonuses or overrides for these sites to foster the creation of middle-income affordable housing.”

Grunstein goes on to explain that under the Bloomberg administration, their is a lack of focus on the creation of middle-income units and as a result, the city is missing big opportunities:

“If similar requirements had been in place for the massive Hudson Yards development, there would be an additional 5,000 units of affordable housing constructed. The thousands of people who will eventually work in that new neighborhood could have filled these apartments rather than having to commute from long distances.”

That’s an unnecessary burden for those workers as well as a loss for the city’s economy”

Grunstein advises that de Blasio should foster his relationship with the real estate industry; show that he is willing to work with them.  Choosing to mandate construction of middle-income housing would add to the long-term sustainability and vitality of NYC.  Residents of all income levels will not to be forced leave, they can continue to thrive in the city.

“The city should not leave the decision to include affordable housing up to the developer. Instead, it should have required the construction of affordable housing as part of the RFP and guaranteed the creation of a place where middle-income New Yorkers could live.”

Read Leonard Grunstein’s full article on Gotham Gazette

Grunstein Authors UNICEF Office Condominium Plan

In the fall of 1993, following three years of negotiations between UNICEF and the cities of New York and New Rochelle, the organization’s executive committee voted to remain in Manhattan. The agency, a United Nations international relief program headquartered in the city since its inception, was looking to expand and had considered moving to the Westchester County city, which was in the midst of a major redevelopment of its downtown business district and was courting UNICEF as an anchor tenant.

633 Third Ave Office Condominium

The agency’s decision to stay preserved nearly 1,000 jobs in the City and created  hundreds more, as the organization planned to increase its staff by 600 over the next 20 years. The deal was convenient for UNICEF as well, allowing its offices to remain at the original headquarters at 3 United Nations Plaza and gain more space at 633 Third Avenue, an office tower then controlled by the Travelers Insurance Co.

633 Third Ave Lobby

The city offered financial incentives to persuade UNICEF to stay, granting tax exemptions made possible by Gov. Mario Cuomo, who signed a bill permitting such exemptions for portions of three specific properties in Manhattan — including 633 Third Ave. Leonard Grunstein, who at the time was a partner at Herrick, Feinstein, LLP, authored the Condominium Plan to convert the building, allowing the agency to receive the promised exemptions. The transaction involved the United Nations Development Corp., a City agency, which acquired the UNICEF condominium unit at 633 Third as a part of a financed lease structure with UNICEF. The UNDC also issued bonds, secured by the UNICEF condominium unit and net lease.

Mayor David Dinkins – who lobbied UNICEF to stay – was quoted in a New York Times article saying: “Unicef is important to New York’s identity as an international city.” More importantly, the expansion was a major victory for the city’s economy. As Real Estate Weekly reported at the time, Dinkins “said it is important to keep UNICEF here, so that people don’t perceive New York as a place to leave.”

Trinity Episcopal School Corp. v. Harris

As an Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of New York, Mr. Grunstein represented the City in Trinity Episcopal School Corporation v. Harris in 1977/1978. In 1975, Trinity Episcopal School Corporation and Trinity Housing Company, Inc. sought to stop construction of a housing project planned for the West Side Urban Renewal Area (the blocks between West 87th and West 97th from Amsterdam Avenue to Central Park West).

There were four issues in question: (1) whether the defendants had breached their contract with Trinity; (2) whether the defendants had failed to conform with the purposes and intent of the West Side Urban Renewal Plan; (3) whether the concentration of low-income housing in Trinity’s immediate area would create an nonintegrated “pocket ghetto;” and (4) whether HUD had complied with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Following three years of litigation, Judge Irving Ben Cooper of the Southern District Court of New York determined that the City and HUD had fulfilled their duties and dismissed Trinity’s complaint in January of 1978.