Amid demand from prospective office tenants seeking space, Vornado Realty Trust is considering reviving plans to demolish the Hotel Pennsylvania and construct a 3 million-square-foot office tower.
“We are getting very interesting, intriguing incomings as to office tenants that might want that site,” Vornado chair Steven Roth told the New York Post.
The Roth-led real estate investment trust scrapped the project, known as 15 Penn Plaza, in 2007 after Merrill Lynch opted not to lease space for new trading floors. Renderings of the 68-story tower showed the silhouette of the Empire State Building and 15 Penn Plaza seen from a faraway graveyard. David Greenbaum, president of the trust’s New York division, later called the renderings “grossly misleading.”
Last year, Vornado said it would launch a $300 million renovation of the hotel. Those plans have since been put on hold. The trust aims to either sign an anchor tenant for 15 Penn Plaza or proceed with the hotel renovation. [NYP] — Mark Maurer