GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Optimism Reigns at Unveiling of Times Tower Design

NEW YORK CITY-Yesterday’s press conference introducing the final design for a new New York Times headquarters building turned into a celebration of the city itself, with an ebullient Governor George Pataki persuading a packed house at 42nd Street’s Duke Theater that happy days, if not quite yet here again, are certainly within reach.

Introduced by Times Co. vice chairman Michael Golden, Pataki hailed the deal as a triumph for the city. “This is an important day because a decade or two from now people are going to look back and say this is another symbol that New York is coming back stronger than ever.”

The dramatic, Renzo Piano-designed office tower is being developed through a network of joint ventures between the New York Times Co., Forest City Ratner Co. and financial partner ING Real Estate. Arranged by Insignia/ESG vice chairman Mary Ann Tighe and executive managing director Gregory Tosko, the three-pronged deal includes an alliance between the Times and FCRC; a separate deal between FCRC and ING; and the 99-year, $85.6-million ground lease and land acquisition agreement between the Times, FCRC and the City and State of New York. The lease gives the joint venture the option to purchase the site after 29 years. FCRC will be the developer of the project, which will open in two phases during 2005 and 2006.