Stephen Ross, the billionaire real estate developer getting flak for his Trump fundraiser in the Hamptons, is facing yet another headache — thanks to the Long Island Railroad, The Post has learned.
The Related Companies chief and Miami Dolphins owner wants to kick-start the second phase of his Hudson Yards mega-development project on Manhattan’s far west side. But the LIRR isn’t letting the train leave the station, sources tell The Post.
At issue are design plans Related and partner Oxford Partners submitted to the LIRR to build a platform over the site’s western rail yard to provide a level surface above the active train yard below.
Sources say detailed design plans for the platform, which is required before development can commence, were submitted to the LIRR in the summer of 2018. But the agency still hasn’t given them the green light.
“Related pushes them every week,” a source said.
The reason for the delay isn’t clear, but until the logjam breaks, Ross’ plans to work on the platform by the end of 2019 will be dashed — and he can’t make a dime on his investment in the meantime.
Related Companies declined to comment.
An MTA representative said, “LIRR and MTA are working with Related to help them develop a design that satisfies their obligation to preserve life-safety and operational flexibility for the LIRR at Hudson Yards.”
Related’s Hudson Yards is a 27-acre, $28 billion development project built mostly atop the sunken rail yard site bounded by Tenth and Twelfth avenues and West 30th and 33rd streets.
Ross’ Related won development rights in 2008 when it bought a 99-year lease for just over $1 billion from the MTA, which owns the rail yard.
The eastern half of the complex opened in March with two mighty office towers, 100 mostly upscale stores and restaurants, a new hotel and a glass-encased arts center called The Shed.
The LIRR delays are affecting the second half of the development, which will boast six buildings with 4 million square feet of apartments and 2 million square feet of offices plus stores. There will also be a school and a large public green attached to the curving High Line trestle.
New buildings at the western yard site can’t rise without the deck.
Like the one above the eastern yard, it won’t actually support the buildings, which are anchored in bedrock below, but will provide a user-friendly surface environment above the tracks.
In the meantime, the western yard still looks as it has for nearly a century — a sprawl of sunken tracks through which LIRR and Amtrak trains crawl at snail-like speed.
By contrast, construction of the eastern yard deck started on time in 2014 and was completed within two years.
The intricate job involved driving hundreds of caissons to support the deck into bedrock without disrupting LIRR operations on 30 tracks that run through the site.
Ross is throwing a fundraiser for Trump in the Hamptons Friday, which has resulted in some backlash from patrons of Equinox and SoulCycle, which Related owns.
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