Income Per Class A Unit (Details) (USD $) In Thousands, except Per Share data, unless otherwise specified	3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2015	Mar. 31, 2014
Income Per Class A Unit [Abstract]
Income from continuing operations, net of income attributable to noncontrolling interests	$ 93,523	$ 78,111
Income from discontinued operations, net of income attributable to noncontrolling interests	15,841	8,466
Net income attributable to Vornado Realty L.P.	109,364us-gaap_NetIncomeLoss	86,577us-gaap_NetIncomeLoss
Preferred unit distributions	(19,496)	(20,380)
Net income attributable to Class A unitholders	89,868	66,197
Earnings allocated to unvested participating securities	(749)	(899)
Numerator for diluted income per class A unit	$ 89,119	$ 65,298
Denominator for basic income per Class A unit - weighted average units (in units)	198,675	197,917
Vornado stock options and restricted unit awards (in units)	2,074	1,437
Denominator for diluted income per Class A unit - weighted average units and assumed conversions	200,749	199,354
INCOME PER CLASS A UNIT - BASIC:
Income from continuing operations, net (in dollars per unit)	$ 0.37	$ 0.29
Income from discontinued operations, net (in dollars per unit)	$ 0.08	$ 0.04
Net income per common share (in dollars per unit)	$ 0.45	$ 0.33
INCOME PER CLASS A UNIT - DILUTED:
Income from continuing operations, net (in dollars per unit)	$ 0.36	$ 0.29
Income from discontinued operations, net (in dollars per unit)	$ 0.08	$ 0.04
Net income per common share (in dollars per share)	$ 0.44	$ 0.33

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Amount of income (loss) from continuing operations attributable to the parent. Also defined as revenue less expenses and taxes from ongoing operations before extraordinary items but after deduction of those portions of income or loss from continuing operations that are allocable to noncontrolling interests.

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Per unit of ownership amount after tax of income (loss) from continuing operations available to limited partnership (LP) unit-holder and units that would have been outstanding assuming the issuance of limited partner units for dilutive potential units outstanding.

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Per unit of ownership amount after tax of income (loss) from continuing operations available to limited partnership (LP) unit-holder in a publicly trade limited partnership (LP) or master limited partnership (MLP).

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Amount of income (loss) from a disposal group, net of income tax, reported as a separate component of income before extraordinary items after deduction or consideration of the amount allocable to noncontrolling interests. Includes, net of tax, income (loss) from operations during the phase-out period, gain (loss) on disposal, provision (or any reversals of earlier provisions) for loss on disposal, and adjustments of a prior period gain (loss) on disposal.

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Per unit of ownership amount after tax of gain (loss) on disposal of discontinued operations available to limited partnership (LP) unit-holder.

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Per unit of ownership amount after tax of gain (loss) on disposal of discontinued operations available to limited partnership (LP) unit-holder and units that would have been outstanding assuming the issuance of limited partner units for all dilutive potential units outstanding.

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Additional shares included in the calculation of diluted EPS as a result of the potentially dilutive effect of share based payment arrangements using the treasury stock method.

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The portion of profit or loss for the period, net of income taxes, which is attributable to the parent.

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Net income after adjustments for dividends on preferred stock (declared in the period) and/or cumulative preferred stock (accumulated for the period).

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Net Income or Loss Available to Common Stockholders plus adjustments resulting from the assumption that dilutive convertible securities were converted, options or warrants were exercised, or that other shares were issued upon the satisfaction of certain conditions.

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Amount of earnings (loss) distributed and earnings (loss) allocated to participating securities for the basic earnings (loss) per share or per unit calculation under the two-class method.

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The amount of preferred stock dividends that is an adjustment to net income apportioned to common stockholders.

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Weighted average number of limited partnership units outstanding determined by relating the portion of time within a reporting period that limited partnership units have been outstanding to the total time in that period.

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