The sun only shines on the new, far West Side.
That was the unsurprising theme of a panel discussion we were honored to moderate last week: The Hudson Yards District As You Have Never Seen It Before. The forum was sponsored by CREW Network (Commercial Real Estate Women), hosted by Brookfield at 434 W. 33rd St., and organized by Douglas Elliman’s Faith Hope Consolo.
You don’t expect bombshell revelations at such events — say, the identity of a previously unknown 1-million-square-foot tenant. Even so, the panelists vividly brought to life the fast-selling district that’s already drawn companies such as Time Warner, Coach Inc. and Skadden Arps, retailers led by Neiman Marcus and, soon, thousands of residents.
Related Urban CEO and president Kenneth Himmel, who’s masterminding the 1-million-square-foot retail and restaurant portion of Related’s vast Hudson Yards complex, was confident that all the new shops and eateries will have no trouble drawing customers who either work or live there.
Himmel noted, “Manhattan’s West Side is the most under-served retail market in the US.” He also said a major announcement will be made by the end of the year about the restaurants that will join super-chef Thomas Keller’s at Related’s site.
When asked whether Brookfield would entertain office condo-purchase offers at Manhattan West as Related has at Hudson Yards, Brookfield’s EVP for design and construction, Sabrina Kanner, said the towers were intended as rentals but that “we’re open to all offers.”
When we complimented Kanner on the $250 million, Cinderella transformation of hulking 450 W. 33rd St. —which was the city’s ugliest office address — into glass-clad 5 Manhattan West, she smiled and said that, before the redesign, “when we toured tenants around the rail- yard area, we did everything we could to keep them from looking at it.”
Moinian Group founder Joseph Moinian’s planned 3 Hudson Boulevard tower is building a foundation that won’t be finished for another year. He insisted the site is “absolutely not for sale” when we asked him. It’s fully entitled for nearly 2 million square feet of floor area and stands to benefit from a $65 million city tax exemption that can be passed on to tenants.
“But we get offers all the time,” Moinian laughed. However, although he said the tower would be less expensive to tenants than Related’s or Brookfield’s, he declined to say by how much. Neither Himmel nor Kanner would share rents or purchase prices, either.
None of the projects would be viable without the extension of the No. 7 subway line to 10th Avenue and West 34th Street. The MTA’s senior vice-president and program executive for the job, Shawn Kildare, colorfully related the history and challenges of the project that finally linked the rest of town to Hudson Yards.