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Zoning Politics Poses Challenge to Macy’s Midtown Tower Plans

Macy’s Inc. faces what could be an uphill battle to develop a 1.5-million-square-foot office tower atop its venerable flagship store in Manhattan’s Herald Square. Bloomberg News reported that the recently-unveiled project would require zoning changes that have to be approved by the city, a potentially thorny political process.

“There are projects on individual buildings that have been going on for decades because of political issues,” Noah Kazis at NYU’s Furman Center told Bloomberg. “Whether you move relatively quickly or get dragged out for years and years and years—that’s the question about the politics of this project.”

Lining up political support could be key for Macy’s, which is looking to the Midtown office tower project to help address investor concerns, Bloomberg reported. The company’s shares plunged 43% in 2019 and it recently said it would close 125 stores, while also relocating its headquarters to Manhattan.

Rendering courtesy of FXCollaborative.

For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Paul Bubny

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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 16-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 7-10 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).

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