Alexander's site.

What is with that Alexander's site? Here's the scenario, puzzled together from various pieces. Obviously, something's happening here, Mr. Jones/Malanga.

Bloomberg wants a fancy new office piece with the latest in technology. As an ongoing 24-hour business news center, its easier to get it up and running elsewhere than to come in, wire around reporters and swap equipment between sentences. But who wants to pay for that themselves? Certainly not Michael Bloomberg. Therefore, he has to make a substantial scouting trip outside the city, obtaining quotes and compiling comparison statistics from Colgate Center, LeFrak, Westchester and Connecticut owners.

Then he has to whine to Economic Development's Michael Carey, somehow convincing Carey that there is a very real chance that he will take his jobs elsewhere. With technology being as it is, the reporters could do a great job from the middle of Chicago if they wanted too. And he'll have the back-up stats from Vornado's savvy Steve Roth, who coincidentally owns the huge Merchandise Mart there.

Bloomberg just expanded at 499 Park Avenue, taking a three-year sublease on an additional 9,727 square feet, adding to its current 50,000. It's likely they'll want to at least double that space for any new facility, and within three years, the new building would be operational.

Meanwhile, the former Alexander's department store has been taken down, first to avoid Local Law 10, and most recently Local Law 11 issues (i.e., no one wanted pieces of the patched together block to come flying down on an area shoppers), and since April, to avoid the new height limitations that were released this week, but will not be effective until spring, 2000.

Land use attorney Sandy Lindenbaum, of counsel to Rosenmann Colin, is combing the newly released zoning text even as we speak to ensure his client is secure.

At the Real Estate Board of New York luncheon at the end of November, David Greenbaum, the former Mendik sidekick who stuck with Vornado, reminded the audience that underground or concourse retail "doesn't count towards the FAR of the building." So we know that they will make use of this zoning rule, as do other developers.

H&M, the Swedish company that just signed on at Rockefeller Center, has also admitted to penning a deal for a retail piece at the upcoming site.

There is work being done on the hole in the ground, but guess what? No actual plans have been filed into the computer at the BuildingsDepartment. Acclaimedbuilding architect Peter Claman, a partner with Shuman Lichtenstein Claman, has filed blanks for a new building, and the information will be supplied later.

Vornado recently hired a headhunter to find an internal project manager, and she has approached several top executives in the real estate development world.

Among those already hired: Gaston Silva, the former city Building Commissioner who left the Giuliani Administration after he backed the Brooklyn inspector who didn't like what was going on in Williamsburg. He's now officially the COO of The Mendik Company.

It was around this same time that the wealthy East Siders living in 50-story buildings challenged Donald J. Trump's construction of the 72-story Trump World Tower, and Silva also backed the decision made by his staff to approve the plans, which is still being challenged in court.

We also know that Roth has hired The Sunshine Group, formerly Trump's marketer, to help with the design details and marketing of the condos expected on top of the planned tower.

So there you have it. For the moment. Stay tuned...