FXFOWLE

We can’t stop writing about 11 Times Square here at gbNYC; the project continues to remain fascinating to us on a number of different levels. Designed by FXFOWLE and aiming for a LEED Gold rating, the 40-story tower has yet to land a single tenant despite assurances from developer SJP Properties that the building would be half-filled by this past summer. That, of course, was before the credit crunch, and the project has, at least in our opinion, become the paradigm for green building projects that continue to move forward through the current market turmoil. Still, yesterday, SJP did announce some good news: the building’s 600 foot high concrete core- the tallest ever in Manhattan office building- has topped out. The core will contain all of the building’s infrastructure- utility risers, elevators, and emergency stairwells- and allowed FXFOWLE to design 11 Times Square with fewer perimeter steel columns- a significant green design feature. SJP expects to top the steel out sometime next month and will be ready for yet-to-be-determined tenants by 2010.

The New York Power Authority announced yesterday that it will install a fuel cell at the FXFOWLE-designed Lion House at the Bronx Zoo. The installation will offset 200 kilowatts of electrical demand at the landmarked, Beaux-Arts Lion House, which is on track for a LEED Gold rating from USGBC. The project broke ground back in 2006 and is part of a larger renovation of the Zoo’s Astor Court; the Lion House itself has remained vacant since the lions were moved outdoors almost twenty years ago.

A few weeks ago, Real Estate Weekly reported that SJP Properties was close to securing the French bank Natixis as an anchor tenant for its 40-story, 1.1 million-square-foot speculative 11 Times Square project at the corner of 42nd Street and 8th Avenue, which will seek a LEED Gold rating from USGBC. Yesterday, the developer announced (with some degree of fanfare) that it has started erection of the $1.1 billion building’s 7,000 tons of structural steel. In a prepared statement, SJP CFO David Welch said that “[t]he arrival and implementation of the steel phase will allow interior core and floor framing for the structure to take shape. We remain ahead of schedule and will deliver the building for tenant occupancy by late 2009.” Designed by FXFOWLE, the tower will feature a concrete core enclosing its elevator banks and utility risers, which allows tenant floors to remain column-free and insulates them from noise emanating from the concrete-enclosed mechanical rooms.

In early February, we noted an interview that SJP Properties’ Stephen Pozycki gave to Real Estate Weekly about progress at LEED Gold hopeful 11 Times Square, which is currently under construction at the corner of 42nd Street and 8th Avenue. “Tenants will come,” Pozycki said at the time, while also expressing his expectation that the tower would be half-leased come summer. Despite the softening market, it appears that Mr. Pozycki’s prediction may prove prescient, as Real Estate Weekly reported this week that the French bank Natixis is considering up to 250,000 square feet at 11 Times Square. The bank is apparently conducting test fit-outs but has yet to commit to occupying space at the tower. Natixis currently leases space in a number of Midtown trophy buildings- including 9 West 57th Street and 1350 Avenue of the Americas- that it wants to consolidate into one similarly prestigious space- LEED Gold, even on 8th Avenue, appears to meet that litmus test.