Hudson Yards puts far west Manhattan back on the map

Long a patchwork of underutilized parcels on Manhattan’s far West Side, Hudson Yards soon will emerge from its industrial past as a futuristic collection of commercial and residential towers, extensive retail and restaurants, a mixed-use innovation center, public open space, and a new public school. Hudson Yards is the largest private real estate development in U.S. history, and upon its completion will represent the largest development in New York City since Rockefeller Center in the 1930s. The project remains a shining example of the far West Side’s renaissance.

Our role in this development began in 2011, working for Related/Oxford to structure the master site-plan operating regime to govern interaction among all the buildings in the development. We negotiated innovative commercial condominium structures for each Hudson Yards building. We also worked with the city to create special zoning text to allow development of The Shed, a new multi-arts center adjacent to 15 Hudson Yards. More recently, we represented Mitsui Fudosan America Inc., which took a 90 percent development stake in 50 Hudson Yards in a joint venture with the Related Companies. This 58-story tower, scheduled for completion in 2022, will boast approximately 2.8 million square feet of floor area and become the fourth-largest commercial office tower in New York City.

Our contributions to the transformation of Manhattan’s West Side also include condominium work for a joint venture of Vornado Realty and Related Companies in their redevelopment of the James A. Farley Post Office Building into the new Moynihan Train Hall at New York’s Penn Station. This $1.6 billion project entails constructing a new 255,000-square-foot hub for Amtrak and the Long Island Rail Road, and creating more than 700,000 square feet of retail and office space.

Downtown, we represented Atlas Capital Group and Westbrook Partners in the creation of a new zoning mechanism to allow the transfer of development rights from Pier 40 in Hudson River Park for use in the redevelopment of the St. John’s Warehouse site at Houston Street, across the West Side Highway from the pier. We subsequently represented Douglaston Development in the second transfer of air rights from Hudson River Park — this time to 29th Street and 11th Avenue, the site of a proposed two-building, 960,000-square-foot development, 25 percent of which will be affordable housing.

Uptown, we secured a zoning variance from the NYC Board of Standards and Appeals on behalf of Youngwoo & Associates for the construction of a 22-story building at 181st Street and Amsterdam Avenue. The new building, which will include a hotel, office space and retail, takes the distinctive form of a series of stacked volumes rising in height from the south to the north. It will mark a distinctive gateway into Manhattan and the Washington Heights neighborhood.