In September 2021, Macy's accused the billboard's owner Kaufman Realty of negotiating to lease the space to an online retailer before Macy's most recent lease expired that August. Macy's claimed that the lessee was almost certainly Amazon and filed for an injunction preventing Kaufman from leasing the space to a competitor. Macy's claimed that a 1963 agreement prohibited such a lease "forever" and that an Amazon billboard would be highly visible during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Land value tax is an evil concept. Having to pay for land you already own is insane. Also, people already pay property tax, why should there be an additional tax.
egorfine 45 minutes ago [-]
Not per se. In fact, land tax is extremely important to encourage things moving and economy growing.
It's the implementation that can be evil.
wildzzz 54 minutes ago [-]
A land value tax would be instead of a property tax. It encourages owners to either develop or sell to someone else willing to develop. Although in this case, I don't think it would actually encourage anything as it's clearly being used. The bottom of the building is being used as a store and the rest of the structure is holding up billboards. Most of the building itself is probably worth very little (it does look uninhabitable) so property taxes are lower than what they'd be if the plot was actually occupied with apartments or offices. The actual value comes from what's nearby which is the giant Macy's that wants a big billboard. Land value taxes are meant to prevent people from having relatively empty plots, like a big estate or a vacant plot, but there's already something here. Maybe it's not being used to its full potential but that would involve figuring out what it would take to actually develop and the future income against what the LVT would be. A dilapidated building serving as a billboard structure (plus the Sunglass Hut lease) is easy money, why upset that?
dn3500 8 hours ago [-]
They have an odd definition of "middle".
mbStavola 8 hours ago [-]
I used to work one block from there. For years I got off at that station and walked past the building but had no idea it was hiding something like that. Amazing!
bitwize 52 minutes ago [-]
Mamdani should expropriate the building and do something charitable with it.
ungreased0675 4 days ago [-]
That building looks horrible, do people live there?
amelius 2 hours ago [-]
You know your facade sucks when it looks better with a giant billboard covering it.
nkrisc 5 hours ago [-]
Based on the pictures I can’t imagine anyone legally living there.
I don’t know for sure, but I imagine usable windows are required for living spaces.
timr 3 hours ago [-]
Every bedroom of a rental is required to have a window in New York.
But in this part of town, the advertising rights alone probably vastly exceed any possible revenue from renting the building for residential use. It’s kind of like the tiny building in Times Square that has the ball on top. I don’t think people even realize there’s a building behind all of the billboards, but it was original New York Times building.
nkrisc 1 hours ago [-]
That’s what I meant, but worded poorly: that for anyone to legally be living there it wouldn’t currently meet the standards.
Renting any part of that building out is likely not worth the hassle compared to the ad revenue, as you noted.
jen20 56 minutes ago [-]
> but it was original New York Times building.
It was the second New York Times building! The original was on Park Row.
wahnfrieden 2 hours ago [-]
There are several such buildings in NYC in prime real estate areas that are kept empty in order to prioritize billboard revenue.
ianm218 2 hours ago [-]
Source? My understanding is this is no longer true
wahnfrieden 2 hours ago [-]
One Times Square is no longer fully empty (besides ground floor retail) you’re right that it is now just almost entirely empty as they’ve added an observation deck and a small visitors center/museum about the building as of January this year.
Some other buildings in Times Square keep several floors empty to use for signage instead, a minimum of which is actually mandated by the city.
dylan604 2 hours ago [-]
TFA as exhibit 1?
ianm218 1 hours ago [-]
He said there are several others like this which I think is false, TFA wouldn’t be relevant.
UltraSane 3 hours ago [-]
Not on the really rough looking floors. It has been used as a huge billboard for a very long time.
hdgvhicv 7 hours ago [-]
Ground floor is a shop, pepper floors are basically empty.
dotancohen 1 hours ago [-]
^pepper^upper
Though I have replaced pepper control arms on a vintage Mustang once. Rust does that.
mc32 3 hours ago [-]
I was thinking the same question. It certainly looks unoccupied -I can’t imagine people living in the other side but then again it _could_ be very well maintained and decorated on the inside despite the eyesore looks on the outside. Moreover since the lower floors are commercial it must mean that at least the upper floors are keeping out the elements.
nephihaha 7 hours ago [-]
I know. I was expecting something easier on the eye. Maybe a century of being behind billboards has wrecked it. The 1906/1907 photographs look much better.
q3k 10 hours ago [-]
No, they just shop there.
Terretta 1 days ago [-]
“Hidden by billboards for over 100 years, the tiny holdout building in the middle of Macy’s is back in view”
Initial word of headline necessary for comprehension
fnord77 3 hours ago [-]
a farm. in manhattan
sigh
donohoe 59 minutes ago [-]
There are still farms in Manhattan and other parts of NYC. From the few I know off-hand:
- The Farm at the Javits Center (Hudson Yards) is a working rooftop farm, greenhouse, and has an orchard.
- On Randall’s Island there is a farm with raised beds, greenhouses, rice paddies, and also an orchard.
- Battery Urban Farm (Lower Manhattan) - not sure of this counts but its an operating educational farm that grows produce.
There are others.
margalabargala 1 hours ago [-]
Why do you think "sheep meadow" in Central Park is called that?
Do you think Manhattan has always been skyscrapers?
quickthrowman 1 hours ago [-]
I don’t understand. Do you think the Dutch came to Manhattan in the 1620s and found it fully built out with streets and skyscrapers?
Rendered at 16:28:56 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
In September 2021, Macy's accused the billboard's owner Kaufman Realty of negotiating to lease the space to an online retailer before Macy's most recent lease expired that August. Macy's claimed that the lessee was almost certainly Amazon and filed for an injunction preventing Kaufman from leasing the space to a competitor. Macy's claimed that a 1963 agreement prohibited such a lease "forever" and that an Amazon billboard would be highly visible during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
https://old.reddit.com/r/SpiteHouse/comments/of5cqh/in_the_c...
It's the implementation that can be evil.
I don’t know for sure, but I imagine usable windows are required for living spaces.
But in this part of town, the advertising rights alone probably vastly exceed any possible revenue from renting the building for residential use. It’s kind of like the tiny building in Times Square that has the ball on top. I don’t think people even realize there’s a building behind all of the billboards, but it was original New York Times building.
Renting any part of that building out is likely not worth the hassle compared to the ad revenue, as you noted.
It was the second New York Times building! The original was on Park Row.
Some other buildings in Times Square keep several floors empty to use for signage instead, a minimum of which is actually mandated by the city.
Though I have replaced pepper control arms on a vintage Mustang once. Rust does that.
Initial word of headline necessary for comprehension
sigh
- The Farm at the Javits Center (Hudson Yards) is a working rooftop farm, greenhouse, and has an orchard.
- On Randall’s Island there is a farm with raised beds, greenhouses, rice paddies, and also an orchard.
- Battery Urban Farm (Lower Manhattan) - not sure of this counts but its an operating educational farm that grows produce.
There are others.
Do you think Manhattan has always been skyscrapers?