An 80th floor condo unit in West Midtown billionaires’ bunker One57 just hit the rental market for $125,000 a month, which Curbed informs us is the priciest rental ask in the city that isn’t in a hotel. The apartment at 157 West 57th Street was purchased for an also-eyebrow-raising $53M in 2014 by a buyer using the Pasadena, CA-registered LLC Lapusny, Inc. Given the 6,240-square-foot home’s high-floor status, it’s no surprise that there are 360 degree views of the Manhattan skyline of Central Park, the Hudson and East Rivers and pretty much to the ends of the Earth.

More views, more drama, this way

Photo via pxhere

New Yorkers earning 130 percent of the area median income can now apply for 28 middle-income units at the Avalon Midtown West. The 41-story, 440-unit rental is located at the southeast corner of Eighth Avenue and 50th Street, so if living across from the Gershwin Theatre and swarms of “Wicked” fans doesn’t sound appealing this may be a pass. The available units range from $2,138/month studios to $2,993/month two-bedrooms. This may not sound immediately “affordable,” but market-rate apartments of that size are going for $3,329 and $5,827, meaning you’re actually getting close to a 50-percent discount.

Find out if you qualify

The first phase of the Hudson Yards megaproject, including the public square and gardens and its centerpiece, Vessel, as well as The Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards, which will be anchored by NYC’s first Neiman Marcus store, is preparing to open this March. Now, Fifteen Hudson Yards has announced that that Neiman Marcus fashion director Ken Downing has designed and styled the interiors for a new model home at the 88-story luxury condominium. Furthering the connection between the upper-crust department store and the development’s high-end aspirations is a freshly-launched Neiman Marcus microsite that will allow people to purchase select items in the residence.

Interiors you can buy, this way

A new rendering of the office tower proposed as a Hotel Pennsylvania replacement was presented to investors this week, the New York Post reported Wednesday. Vornado Realty Trust, the owners of the century-old hotel at 15 Penn Plaza, showed off a revised design for the supertall and it looks like the tower will feature a futuristic facade, with outdoor terrace-like space on nearly every level and lots of trees and plants. The site, currently home to the hotel, sits across from Madison Square Garden on the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 32nd and 33rd Streets.

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Rendering of the theater post-renovation. Image: Stillman Development International

New York developer Stillman Development International LLC has signed a 73-year-maximum lease on the Times Square Theater on West 42nd Street with plans for a $100 million makeover in keeping with neighbors like Hershey’s Chocolate World and Old Navy, the Wall Street Journal reports. Shuttered for almost 30 years, the theater, which opened on September 30, 1920 with Florence Reed starring in “The Mirage,” is seen by some as the last vestige of the neighborhood‘s descent into late 20th century blight before rising to new heights as a tourist mecca.

A new idea: Retail!

Rendering via the Governor’s office

At a well-timed press event this morning, Governor Cuomo touted the state’s $100 billion building program, the largest in the nation, and said if elected for another term, he’d increase that commitment to $150 billion. Among the many airport redesigns and the subway emergency plan, perhaps no project is more dear to Cuomo’s heart than that of Penn Station. And after a tour of the Moynihan Train Hall, on budget and on track to open by the end of 2020, the Governor announced that the dire safety, security, and circulation situation at Penn Station cannot wait two more years.

While construction wraps up at the LIRR and Amtrak’s future home, the state will build a new LIRR facility in the existing Penn Station. The proposal will double access to the trains with new entrances and an enlarged concourse and will create a permanent public plaza at 33rd Street and 7th Avenue.

All the renderings and details ahead

Via Governor Cuomo’s office on Flickr

At a construction tour of Moynihan Train Hall this morning, 6sqft had the rare opportunity to get up close and personal with the massive skylights that will crown this new concourse. The transformation of the historic James A. Farley Post Office into a bright, modern transportation hub is on time and on budget for its late 2020 opening, at which time it will increase the footprint of Penn Station by 50 percent, providing a new home for the LIRR and Amtrak. To date, 800 people working every day have logged more than one million hours of labor, and the four, massive skylights are perhaps the most stunning example of their efforts.

See all the views

The West 35th Street/Hudson Blvd entrance under construction. Image via Wiki Commons.

The Manhattan 7 subway extension makes it the only line south of 59th Street to offer service west of Ninth Avenue, providing a long-awaited public transit option–with a station at 34th Street and Eleventh Avenue–for the Jacob Javits Convention Center, the High Line, and Hudson River Park and serving as a selling point for Hudson Yards and the many new developments rising on the far west side. Delays plagued the extension overall, with its opening in September of 2015 happening two years behind its original scheduled date. It was announced at the time that the station’s second entrance on 35th Street would take longer to complete. Now, two years later, the second entrance is open.

More ways to hit the west side

Before the stretch became known as Billionaires’ Row, Al Pacino called 301 West 57th Street home. The Oscar-winning actor, best known for his roles in “Scarface” and “The Godfather,” lived in different units in the building between 1988, when the building was built, and 2013, including a 14-floor corner condo that just hit the market for $2.7 million, reports the Post.

Check it out

Image © 6sqft

A group of New Yorkers who live near Billionaires’ Row, an area with some of the most expensive residences in the world, filed a lawsuit on Monday to block a homeless shelter from opening in the Midtown West neighborhood. The West 58th Street Coalition sued New York City to stop the conversion of the old Park Savoy Hotel at 158 West 58th Street into a homeless shelter for men, a plan announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio in February.

The coalition claims the shelter, which would house 140 single men, would have “an enormous impact on our densely populated, narrow, high-pedestrian-traffic street.” While describing themselves as a group of “compassionate New Yorkers,” the Change.org petition says instead of the city paying $50,000 per person to stay at the Park Savoy, “a homeless man could have his own apartment, living in the neighborhood where he came from.” The new shelter sits behind One57, a known for the city’s most expensive residential sale ever: a penthouse that sold for $100 million in 2015.

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