WHAT happens now? That’s the question about a batch of giant, public-private land-use schemes that Dan Doctoroff either set in motion or decisively kick-started.
They’re all deals yet to be nailed down. But it’s unclear whether anyone else at City Hall has the brains, technical skills and persuasive power to see them through before Mayor Bloomberg leaves office at the end of 2009.
Most proposals you’ve read about – such as the West Side rail yards, Atlantic Yards, Moynihan Station, Ground Zero rebuilding and the JPMorganChase tower – have a long way to go before shovels can go into the ground.
Renderings and preliminary agreements are fine – but the grunt work to seal deals and push them through tortuous public review has barely begun.
Real-estate players agree the proposals couldn’t have gotten as far as they have without Doctoroff, who led the city in complex negotiations and sparked some of the ideas in the first place.
He brought to the often tedious deputy mayor’s job a rare combination of intellect, hands-on skills and what Mary Ann Tighe, regional CEO of the real-estate company CB Richard Ellis, called “energy, passion and intensity.”
In early 2000, long before Bloomberg’s election, Doctoroff came to The Post to present his pitch to bring the 2012 Olympic Games to the city.
Many of us who saw his images of Olympic villages thought he was nuts. But a few years later, the city came close to getting the nod – losing out mainly because Albany killed plans for a stadium above the West Side rail yards.
But the failed stadium dream begat the MTA’s monumental decision to sell development rights at the Hudson Yards site.
Doctoroff spearheaded Bloomberg’s ambitious rezoning of neglected parts of the city so they could be used for modern office space and housing.
He propelled plans for the High Line park off the drawing board. The park, set to open next year, has catalyzed nearly $1 billion in development nearby.
Robert Hammond, who helped dream up the idea of turning the former elevated train line into an urban oasis, said of Doctoroff, “He got the deal done and he’s getting the job done on time.”
Tighe spoke for many: “I just hope that the momentum he created will not be lost after his departure.”