BY YANNIC RACK | On paper, Hudson Yards has been touted as an infrastructure marvel and a “city within a city” for years, and now the first piece of the megaproject has at long last come to life.
Ten Hudson Yards, one of many buildings to rise in the newly created West Side enclave, made its official debut this week with a reception to welcome its first big-name tenant, Coach Inc., to the 52-story office tower at the corner of W. 30th St. and 10th Ave.
“This is a great day for me. In 2008 we envisioned what Hudson Yards might be, and to see this first building opening, I gotta tell you, it’s a very exciting thing,” said Stephen Ross, founder and chairman of Related Companies, which is developing the project with Oxford Properties.
“This is just a preview of what’s to come, but I think you can see the quality of what we’re doing here, and what our vision is.”
Ross was surrounded by Coach employees in the building’s second-floor lobby on Tuesday morning, as workers in hard hats could be seen working on the platform that will carry an entire neighborhood — built atop active train yards — just outside.
The tower broke ground in December 2012 and is the first one to open in the new 28-acre neighborhood.
Five more skyscrapers, a shopping and restaurant complex, a cultural center and a six-acre public plaza will be added by 2019 alone, when the first phase of the project from W. 30 to W. 34th Sts. and 10th to 11th Aves. is completed.
When fully occupied, 10 Hudson Yards itself will house 7,000 employees. Move-ins from L’Oréal, SAP, The Boston Consulting Group, VaynerMedia, Intersection, Sidewalk Labs and Coach — which only moved a quarter of its 1,200-person staff this week — will continue through the end of the year.
For the fashion firm, which is taking almost half of the 1.8 million square-foot tower, the new space is within familiar territory — the company has been headquartered just four blocks north on W. 34th St. for decades, and a nearby portion of the High Line is still known as the Coach Passageway.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the result [of this partnership] and what it means for us,” said the company’s CEO, Victor Luis.
“We have been in this neighborhood for north of 50 years, and as we celebrate this year our 75th anniversary,” he added, “we’re providing our team with a fresh start in a new home — which is very open, airy, and has the most amazing views!”
Once it is completed in 2025, adding three more blocks stretching all the way to the West Side Highway, more than 125,000 people a day will work in, visit or call Hudson Yards their home, according to Related.
The development will then span more than 100 shops and restaurants, including New York City’s first Neiman Marcus department store, approximately 4,000 residences, 14 acres of public open space, a new 750-seat public school and a 200-room luxury hotel.
An independent study commissioned by the developers recently found that the micro-neighborhood would contribute nearly $500 million in New York City taxes every year and generate more than 55,000 jobs on the West Side.
“It’s really the beginning of another city within a city,” said Luis.
“We’re excited to be at the center of culture, with all that’s coming next door to us with the Culture Shed; at the center of commerce, with all our partners who will be in this and the future buildings; and to be a part of this wonderful residential community that is very fast coming up around us.”
With the project’s first phase, the Eastern Yard, scheduled to fully open in three years, sales for the residences at 15 Hudson Yards and 35 Hudson Yards will launch later this year, according to Related.
Another office building, 55 Hudson Yards, future home to law firms Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP and Boies, Schiller & Flexner, will open in 2018, together with the retail center and 6-acre public plaza.
The final building to come online, in 2019, will be 30 Hudson Yards, another commercial office tower that is set to house such big-name tenants as Wells Fargo Securities, TimeWarner, HBO and CNN.
Ross emphasized how much companies like Coach, with their commitment to rent space in buildings only realized on paper, contribute to the project.
“Having the vision to want to develop something and coming here to make something happen,” he said, “I really have to thank Coach for the vision they had in wanting to stay here, and buying into our idea of what the next great neighborhood in the city of New York will become.”
