Michaels Joins NYC Mayor for Groundbreaking at 20 Times Square

October 28, 2015

The New York Post recently covered the groundbreaking ceremony at 20 Times Square, attended by New York mayor Bill de Blasio and The Carlton Group’s founder and chairman, Howard Michaels.

Steve Witkoff and Howard Lorber, joined by partners from Winthrop Realty Trust, Maefield Development, and Howard Michaels from Carlton Strategic Ventures, celebrated the groundbreaking of 20 Times Square on Monday morning at the construction site at 701 Seventh Ave. with politicians that included Mayor Bill de Blasio and Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

Hotelier Ian Schrager watched from above as others struggled down the 100-foot-plus-long construction stairs to bedrock, where footings are going in for the 39-story, 452-room five-star Marriott Edition.

Its base will have 76,000 square feet of retail and an 18,000-square-foot LED sign.

The entire project is being developed with union labor, Witkoff said.

The mayor noted Times Square had come a long way since 1985, when “it was skeevy,” but now, “Here we are, literally, in [sic] crossroads of the world — center of the universe, and here something great is going to happen.”

Among the other celebrants were Peter Ward, who heads the Hotel Trades Council, Tim Tompkins from the Times Square Alliance and Howard Michaels of the Carlton Group, who aside from being a partner in the deal, brought the parties together for the equity and debt, which included Barry Sternlicht, whose son, James, just began working for Witkoff.

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