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]
From left: 1270 and 1100 Sixth Avenue (building credits: PropertyShark)
Time Warner will soon send tri-state landlords a request for proposals as it seeks some 4 million square feet of office space, the Wall Street Journal reported. It represents the first step in the firm’s search for space as its leases at 1100 and 1270 Sixth Avenue near their end. It also owns office space in Columbus Circle. [more]
Hudson Yards
Development is thriving in the area surrounding the Hudson Rail Yards, the New York Times reported. In fact, this is the most active development period since the Related Companies project was first announced. Following the rezoning of the area, which spans 28th through 43rd streets west of Eighth Avenue, in 2005, the Times said 5,000 apartments have been built and more than $5 billion in private funds have been invested in the neighborhood.
Most recently, Iliad Development said it is aiming to break ground on a new 200-unit rental building to be located at 509 West 38th Street during the fourth quarter of this year. According to the Times, this is one of dozens of new developments being planned in the next several years. [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]
Diller Scafidio + Renfro founders Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scafidio
Related Companies has tapped architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro to design the first residential building at Hudson Yards and aims for it to be completed by 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The building would rise to 800 feet at the northeast corner of Eleventh Avenue and 30th Street with about 700 units. Related said it hopes to complete the building around the same time the first office structure on the site, which has already sold 600,000 square feet of space to Coach, is finished. [more]
From left: renderings of 250 West 55th Street, Manhattan West and 51 Astor Place
The city’s low office vacancy rates and slowly rising rents are overshadowing a disturbing office leasing trend, according to the New York Post. Ground-up office projects have been unable to secure major tenants, which in turn has stifled development.
Yesterday’s news that Silverstein Properties might cap off 3 World Trade Center at seven stories because of its inability to land a tenant, is just the most recent example. [more]
Determined to cut costs at its $4 billion Hudson Yards project, the Related Companies has reached outside the typical pot of New York City contractors and inked a California company. Crain’s said the impact of the unusual selection could reverberate throughout the city’s local construction industry.
Related chose Tutor Perini Corp. for the project because, unlike its New York counterparts, the firm owns subcontractors that can complete all facets of the construction project. [more]
The city has hidden more than $10 million in infrastructure costs for the Hudson Yards development project in the budgets of other agencies, the New York Daily News reported.
The mammoth project on the Far West Side will cost the city far more than projected, the News said. Between cost overruns for the extension of the 7 line to 11th Avenue — whose cost has ballooned by $3 million in the last few months — and the cost of interest on the bonds that are being used to finance the Hudson Yards project, the city will be on the hook for more than $500 million, the News said. [more]
Friends of the High Line, the non-profit group that oversees development of the West Side elevated park, has decided to open the final phase up to the public for input on what should grow on the tracks surrounding the Related Companies’ Hudson Yards development in the future, the New York Observer reported.
Until recently, it had not been clear whether the final section of elevated train track would be preserved for the High Line as the city worked to redevelop the site, but the Bloomberg administration and Related have both thrown their weight behind the project.
Friends of the High Line has issued a Request for Proposals on YouTube, inviting interested parties to a meeting tonight to discuss the last phase of the park (see video above). [NYO] [more]
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s failed 2012 Olympic bid paved the way for the development of Manhattan’s Far West Side, which has given birth to 15 residential towers and 12 hotels since 2005, when the International Olympic Committee selected London to host the games.
According to the New York Times, the city rezoned and adjusted land use laws for the area to facilitate development for the Olympics and began planning the $2 billion extension of the 7 subway line to 34th Street and 11th Avenue. Though the Olympics didn’t follow, development has. In addition to the Related Companies’ Hudson Yards site, Avalon Bay is planning a 30-story rental development at 11th Avenue and 29th Street, and the Gotham Organization broke ground on a $520 million residential complex 15 blocks to the north. New parks and a boulevard between 10th and 11th avenues are also on the docket. [more]
