NHL in talks for HQ at Brookfield’s 1 Manhattan West

The National Hockey League isn’t letting the Stanley Cup playoffs distract it from its search for a new New York City headquarters. The NHL is reportedly in negotiations to take 160,000 square feet at Brookfield Property Partners’ 1 Manhattan West office tower in Hudson Yards.

With a move to the planned 67-story skyscraper, the NHL would leave its current home at SL Green Realty’s 1185 Sixth Avenue in Midtown – where it signed a lease for 140,000 square feet in 2007 and also opened a retail store at the base of the building.

The NHL would be the second major tenant to agree to a deal at the $2.1 billion office tower, which Brookfield[TRData] is building on the corner of West 33rd Street and Ninth Avenue, according to Crain’s.

Last year, law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom signed a 20-year lease for 550,000 square feet at 1 Manhattan West – with the firm set to leave its current digs at the Durst Organization’s 4 Times Square to anchor the new building once it’s finished in 2019.

Skadden Arps has also recently reached an agreement to take an additional 70,000 square feet at the tower, Crain’s reported – pushing its total footprint at the building to 620,000 square feet.

In the fall, it emerged that Brookfield had secured an investment from the Qatar Investment Authority – the energy-rich nation’s sovereign wealth fund – in exchange for a 44 percent stake in the five-building megaproject. That investment reportedly valued Manhattan West at $8.6 billion, though Crain’s pegs the development at $4.5 billion. [Crain’s] – Rey Mashayekhi