CBRE's Bob Alexander and Hudson Yards rendering
Luxury retailer coach has expanded its presence at Hudson Yards, the New York Post reported, and agreed to purchase an additional 150,000 square feet on top of the 600,000 for which it already signed. Under the terms of its agreement with developer Related Companies, which is down to “paper details,” Coach can add another 100,000 feet to bring its total to 850,000, or one-half of the forthcoming 46-story building’s 1.7 million square feet. [more]
Jacob Javits Center
Trade show producers have joined together to voice support for the Jacob Javits Center that Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to tear down, and even threatened to boycott his proposed replacement at the Aqueduct in Queens. Crain’s reported the group of 21 large trade-show companies, called Friends of Javits, sent a letter to Cuomo late last month to express their opposition to the demolition of the existing facility. [more]
Brookfield's Phil Wharton and a rendering of Manhattan West
The Far West Side earned the latest confirmation of its potential as a residential neighborhood when office developer Brookfield Office Properties recently said it was considering adding 900 apartments to its Manhattan West project, according to the New York Post. The area already has thousands of new rental units from developers such as TF Cornerstone, Glenwood Management and the Related Companies, and has thousands more on the way from those developers, the Gotham Organization and Iliad Development. [more]
Brookfield President Dennis Friedrich, Phil Wharton, new director of development, and Manhattan West
Long considered only for its office and retail potential, Brookfield Office Properties’ massive Manhattan West development site could include residential, too. Citing information from an investor call, Bloomberg News reported that the developer may include up to 900 residential units in its 5.4 million-square-foot plan.
“We’ve always highlighted the office density because we’re an office landlord,” said Brookfield Office President Dennis Friedrich said. “But we have the ability to build 900 units on that site. That market has really taken off, and may drive greater value for us, so we took a little bit of time to study that.” [more]
The site of the crane collapse
Construction on the 7 train extension resumed yesterday afternoon, according to city officials, DNAinfo reported, for the first time since a crane collapse at the West 34th Street and 11th Avenue work site last week killed one construction worker and injured three others. A cable snapped, the second such incident in the last three months, on a crane which was owned and operated by Yonkers Contracting Company, prompting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to suspend work at the site. [more]
Jacob Javits Center
Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson wants to put a casino in the Javits Center, on Manhattan’s Far West Side, the New York Post reported. But while he is prepared to pounce in the event that New York City law makes it possible, there are already detractors, the Post said.
“There’s a little noise in New York now, and we’re going to take a look and see if we can put something… maybe in Manhattan and be able to maybe do something with [the Jacob K. Javits Center]… and put our complex there,” Las Vegas Sands President Mike Leven said. Las Vegas Sands, Aldelson’s company, is a leading casino development group. [more]
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Hudson Yards
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is cutting the Related Companies a break from the living wage legislation.
The New York Times reported that Quinn has added an exemption to the living wage bill, which would require commercial projects that get city funding to pay employees a “living wage” of at least $10 per hour with benefits, that doesn’t require most of the Hudson Yards development to comply. [more]
A rendering of Manhattan West
Brookfield Office Properties is awaiting only the go-ahead from Amtrak, which operates the train tracks beneath the site slated for its massive Manhattan West project, before it begins construction on a deck to cover the rail yards.
The New York Post reported that while Brookfield officials say they are 95 percent of the way to an agreement with Amtrak executives, Amtrak in turn said the sides still have “some substantive” issues to iron out. The developer had previously said construction would start in January. [more]
Related has purchased a portion of restaurateur Danny Meyer’s Union Square Events, Business Week reported. The pair will partner on future ventures, the first being Related’s Hudson Yards.
Meyer, of Shake Shack fame, sees it as an opportunity to extend his brand to stadiums and other properties that his products don’t currently reach, and Related gets the cachet that Meyer’s popular chains bring. [more]
Sherwood Equities has acquired a West Side development site where Extell Development had once planned to build a 60-story hotel and residential tower for more than $42 million, according to Real Estate Weekly. The site, at 356 10th Avenue, near the Related Companies’ planned Hudson Yards development, was assembled for at least $44 million by Extell, but after its financing partner backed out of the project, the company handed it back to lender Barclays Capital Real Estate last year in a deed in lieu of foreclosure. Barclays, which held a first mortgage valued at nearly $30 million on the property, hired Massey Knakal Realty Services to help sell the site in March. [REW]
