One Day, Seven Development Chiefs
Has anyone made a Page-a-Day calendar featuring the Men & Women of Real Estate? If not, we found a whole week's worth of NYC development VIPs during our travels on Thursday.
1) Jay Cross
Related is scrapping Extell's 56-story design for One Hudson Yards (Related acquired the site in a land swap with Extell this summer) and is instead designing a 47-story, 1.3M SF office tower to be called 1 Hudson Blvd, Related Hudson Yards president Jay Cross told the NY Building Congress over breakfast at the Hilton. We snapped Jay, right, with the org's president, Dick Anderson. It'll be Hudson Yards' smaller-floorplate option for office tenants (Related is thinking law firms), as opposed to the 2.4M SF north tower's 70k SF lower-level floors. Jay says those were designed for financial services trading floors, and though that sector no longer is a likely tenant, the larger floors are still popular. Jay also says Related is looking for an artist to build a monumental piece of art for the public square at Hudson Yards (think Chicago's Bean) and likely will announce one in six months.
Jay's ambitious timing: If the 7 line and south tower (the one with Coach, L'Oreal, and SAP, plus 250k SF available) deliver in 2015, 1 Hudson Blvd would arrive in 2017 and then the north tower in '18. 2 Hudson Blvd, with trading-floor size floorplates again and seven levels of retail (compared to four at Related's successful Time Warner Center), will arrive by the middle of 2019. Also on the way is a tower with 200k SF for a luxury hotel and 750k SF of residential (288 condos and 76 rentals).
2) David Weinreb
Next stop: South Street. We snapped Howard Hughes Corp CEO David Weinreb with Georgetown Co prez Adam Flatto, who's on HHC's board, moments after David et al shoveled some ceremonial dirt to launch the groundbreaking of HHC's Pier 17 redevelopment.
Mayor Mike was there, too, to celebrate the coming-in-2016 retail, dining, and entertainment, including a 1.5-acre rooftop with a world-class restaurant, two outdoor bars, and a 4,000-person amphitheater. (Could Mike have been scouting out a site for his one-man musical revue? It can get boring being an ex-Mayor.) Now also seems like an opportune time to tell you about Bisnow's Future of NY Real Estate Post-Bloomberg event coming up Oct. 30 with speakers like RXR's Seth Pinsky, CBRE's Mary Ann Tighe, World Trade Center Properties' Janno Lieber, and Stroock's Ross Moskowitz. Sign up here!
RKF CEO Robert Futterman tells us his firm is working on 25 proposals for the 365k SF of retail and has a few LOIs out, so we can expect a few announcements within months, if not weeks.
3, 4, & 5) Scott Rechler, Tommy Craig, & Mitch Rudin
We snapped RXR CEO Scott Rechler, Hines New York head Tommy Craig, and Brookfield US CEO Mitch Rudin at the 2013 Municipal Art Society Summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center in Time Warner Center. Scott, whose firm has made a big Midtown South splash with the Starrett-Lehigh Building and 620 Ave of the Americas, says office rents in the submarket have risen from the $30-$40/SF range to $60-$70/SF, and Lower Manhattan will be the beneficiary. Tommy says NYC is developing at a third of the rate as in the '80s and a third of London's current pace. (True, but all their cranes drive on the wrong side of the road.) Hines seems to be doing its part though, including the condos at 56 Leonard. Sales launched just seven months ago, and it's already 85% sold, at close to $3,000/SF.
6) Simon Koster
While loads of residential is going on farther south, JDS Group managing director Simon Koster made the case for building his company's mega-tall 105-111 W 57th St (frontage also on 58th). 57th is the northern border of Midtown's zoning district that limits height, Simon says, and with Central Park just one block away, there's actually no better place to go 1,200 feet into the sky.
7) MaryAnne Gilmartin
With NYC's population headed to more than 9 million, says Forest City Ratner CEO MaryAnne Gilmartin, the city needs infrastructure, buildings that are less disruptive, and affordable housing and mixed-use buildings. Intelligent construction doesn't mean no construction. Rather, hyperdensity and deeper imagination are the key. Hence Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards, in which Chinese company Greenland Group bought a majority stake two weeks ago. Yes, it's an 8M SF project, but it'll produce 70% to 90% less waste than traditional buildings, MaryAnne says.
