When Brookfield Office Properties unveiled plans to develop a long dormant site on Manhattan's West Side last year, it would have been fair to question whether the global firm would complete the $4.6-billion project. After all, it had owned some parcels on the six-acre property spanning West 31st to West 33rd streets between 9th and 10th avenues for more than 15 years and had started and stopped development before on the property, where much of the "land" was a yawning pit over busy railroad tracks.
Brookfield served notice at the start, however, plowing $340 million of its own cash into the first $680-million phase of its 7-million-sq-ft Manhattan West project. And instead of leasing the complex machinery necessary to create a 115,000-sq-ft platform across the rail tracks, it simply bought the expensive, custom-built equipment outright.