There was a time when developers and city officials thought that the city’s financial institutions would lead the development of the rail yards on the Far West Side of Manhattan.
But with the long-awaited signing of three major tenants for the first office tower at Hudson Yards, it is now clear that the city’s tech companies and creative firms are coming to the fore of new development projects.
The developers Related Companies and Oxford Property Group announced Wednesday that they had completed the financing for a 47-story tower at the northwest corner of 30th Street and 10th Avenue and signed up three tenants for the building: Coach, the luxury retailer; L’Oreal USA, the beauty products company; and SAP, a leading software company.
“It says a lot about the city’s evolving economy,” said L. Jay Cross, president of Related’s Hudson Yards development team. “It’s about much more than financial services today. This represents the emergence of the creative class as a significant part of the city’s corporate landscape.”
In recent years, tech firms like Google have settled and grown all along the West Side, where they employ thousands of young people.
At the same time on Wednesday, the developers closed on their deal with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build a commercial and residential complex over the rail yard bound by 10th and 11th Avenues, between 30th and 33rd Streets.
Five years ago, the transit authority struck a deal with Related for the equivalent of a small city over what is called the Eastern Yard and an adjacent rail site between 11th and 12 Avenues for $1 billion. But progress has been slow, in part, because of the recession. Both sides now plan to close on the western yard a year from now.
Coach first surfaced in 2011 as a potential anchor tenant for the project. It is buying more than 40 percent of the 1.7 million-square-foot tower for its new headquarters. More recently, SAP signed a lease for the top four floors and L’Oreal completed a deal for a new 402,000-square-foot headquarters.
Related is currently building the foundations for that tower and erecting a separate residential building on the south side of 30th Street.
Officials said that the developer planned to start work on the platform for the rest of the Eastern Yard in January in order to reduce the time it will take to erect the second office tower and attract tenants.