(Far) West Side story
T HE
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 1million-square-foot tenant. Even so, the panelists vividly brought to life the fastselling 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 Him
mel, 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 Blvd. 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,b, Shawn Kildare, colorfully related the history and challenges of the project that finally linked the rest of town to Hudson Yards.
We knew you’d ask but, no — Time Warner’s proposed merger with AT&T cannot alter the media giant’s planned move from Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle to 30 Hudson Yards.
The deal to buy 1.6 million square feet is signed and sealed. Time Warner closed on the 30 HY purchase last December. Related and its partners closed on the $1.3 billion purchase of Time Warner’s current digs at TWC around the same time. How much Time Warner is paying for its floors at 30 Hudson Yards has not been disclosed.
The influx of large Japanese restaurant chains rolls on.
On the heels of recently launched Ichiran and TsuruTonTan, comes Naoki, to open at 311 W. 17th St.
Naoki is owned by Create Restaurant Holdings, which has nearly 800 eateries worldwide. It appears to be named for company managing director Naoki
Takahashi, who, according to a liquor license application, “will be moving to New York City in fall 2016.”
The location has 2,400 square feet on two levels. The asking rent was $210,000 a year.
The landlord was repped by Eastern Consolidated’s
Joe Robinson and Kendall Novak, while Sumitomo Real Estate repped the tenant. A little-noticed feature of SL Green’s One Vanderbilt, which broke ground last week, is a giant world-class restaurant on the tower’s second floor. Diners will reach the venue — 11,000 square feet, part of which will boast an incredible ceiling height of 105 feet — through an entrance at the corner of Vanderbilt Avenue and East 42nd Street. SL Green managing director Brett Herschenfeld said, “We are in the latter stages of selecting . . . one of the top restaurateurs in the world.” scuozzo@nypost.com