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Frank McCourt back to seeking partner at Hudson Yards site
Former Dodgers owner taps CBRE, HFF to find suitors for stake in $3B project
Frank McCourt, the former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, may finally be ready to move ahead with developing his long-languishing plot at a prime corner in Hudson Yards.
McCourt Global recently hired CBRE and HFF to help “identify potential development partners and opportunities” for the site at 360 10th Avenue, Drew McCourt, the firm’s president and Frank McCourt’s son, confirmed to The Real Deal. Sources said the company does not have plans for an outright sale.
The site, located between West 30th and 31st streets, has sat largely vacant and untouched for the four years it’s been under McCourt’s ownership. The developer paid Sherwood Equities and Long Wharf Real Estate Partners $167 million in 2014 for the site, including air rights, in what was his first major commercial real estate deal since selling the Dodgers in 2011 – and remains his only major New York real estate holding.
At the time, he envisioned a $3 billion residential-and-retail skyscraper on the site, which is zoned for 840,000 square feet. Houston-based development giant Hines joined the project as an equity and development partner in September 2014, but that deal later fell apart.
McCourt got into the Hudson Yards area when Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group, the developers spearheading the megaproject, were in the middle of construction on 10 Hudson Yards, directly across the street, and were breaking ground on 30 Hudson Yards.
The 360 10th site remained vacant but fenced off to the public, until last month, when the owner hosted a two-week concert series and art exhibition called “A Prelude to the Shed,” a promotion for the Hudson Yards arts center opening next spring. McCourt donated $45 million to the Shed, which will have a space called “The McCourt.”
In a statement, Drew McCourt made note of “the Hudson Yards district beginning to thrive.”
CBRE’s Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan and HFF’s Andrew Scandalios are marketing the stake. They could not be reached for comment.
McCourt Global is also a partner on developments in Miami, Austin and London. In addition to real estate, Drew McCourt funds a company that recently made headlines for proposing a gondola lift that would transport passengers from Union Station in Los Angeles to Dodger Stadium in five minutes.