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Glen Weiss, the Executive Vice-President of Vornado, affirmed at a Real Deal forum last week that the company is moving forward with its planned skyscraper project at 350 Park Avenue, which is set to be anchored by Ken Griffin’s Citadel companies. “You should assume we’re in,” Weiss confidently stated.
Weiss further emphasized that demolition has begun and the company is poised to proceed, dismissing media reports to the contrary as “not accurate.”
However, the lingering question remains: Will Ken Griffin stay committed to the project following a vehement video critique by Mayor Zohran Mamdani?
Griffin, who partners with Vornado and the Rudin organization on this venture, previously mentioned that he and his partners are “reviewing” their involvement in the project.
Should Griffin decide to withdraw, Vornado might also reconsider its position, as the company holds the option to exit the project by mid-July, a stipulation detailed in numerous prior public SEC filings.
CBRE global brokerage chief Stephen B. Siegel, who was on the Real Deal panel, told the audience that, “Unfortunately, our mayor’s DNA is not to work with the elite or the rich or the successful.”
He later told Realty Check he regarded Mamdani as “dangerous” to the city. Even so, he downplayed the idea that Griffin’s intention to increase his amount of office space in Miami meant he would reduce it in New York necessarily.
“He was already planning” to enlarge the Florida office footprint before Mamdani went on the attack, Siegel said. “Let’s hope it’s all he does.”