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https://therealdeal.com/new-york/?p=804785

Lander on Hudson Yards: “I got it wrong”
Comptroller admits development producing more tax revenue than expected

https://therealdeal.com/wp-content/u...m-1024x640.png

JUN 20, 2023
By Erik Engquist

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By Erik Engquist
Hudson Yards has for years been a punching bag for progressives. They called it a giveaway to Big Real Estate, a bad risk for taxpayers and a billionaires’ playground. When the pandemic set the project back, they called it karma.

So it was surprising, even shocking, when City Comptroller Brad Lander — successor to Bill de Blasio as the city’s top elected progressive — openly admitted the Bloomberg administration was right about Hudson Yards’ public financing scheme.

It’s not just working, but working better than anticipated — even after the development was slammed by Covid.

“One really interesting thing we looked at this month, in the Class A, in the trophy parts of the market, things are actually really rebounding well,” he said on NY1. “Hudson Yards is giving about $200 million more a year than we expected, and that’s going to grow to $300 million.”

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The interviewer, Errol Louis, a veteran of city politics and a former candidate himself, did not miss the significance of Lander’s statement. A couple of minutes later, he returned to the subject.

“You had been a skeptic of the financing of Hudson Yards,” Louis noted.

The city issued bonds to pay for billions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure, notably an extension of the No. 7 line, to make the massive development possible. Bondholders would be paid back by the resulting increase in property tax revenue, Doctoroff promised. If revenue fell short, city taxpayers would be on the hook.

Lander was one of the voices on the left who openly questioned the administration’s financial alchemy. But after looking at the numbers — which, as comptroller, is his job — he has come around. All the way around.

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”I own this,” Lander said. “You know, one thing you try to do in the comptroller’s office is collect the data and have it test your priors. In this case, I was a critic of the Bloomberg administration’s financing scenario. They basically used the city’s credit card to finance Hudson Yards and put the city at risk, and I and others raised concerns that it would expose the city.”

“As it has played out, Hudson Yards is financing that debt and now returning, again, a couple hundred million dollars more to the city than we expected,” the Park Slope Democrat said. “So this is one place I gotta say I got it wrong.”

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Subways, pedestrian improvements and parks are things that government is supposed to pay for. No one thinks of Central Park as a subsidy for Billionaires’ Row, Prospect Park as a handout for Brooklyn property owners or Grand Central Terminal as welfare for Midtown.

Another fact long forgotten is that the Related Companies only got to develop Hudson Yards because Tishman Speyer pulled out, deeming it too risky in the wake of the Financial Crisis. If Related got a “sweetheart deal,” it’s worth asking why a rival developer turned it down.

….. “The data has helped me see some changes there,” Lander said on NY1. “Still some questions about the architecture, I guess, but on the financing, at an important moment for the city, it’s making a big difference.”

The tax revenue will jump even more once the residential components are built out.

They get it wrong on a lot of things. The more development, the less opposition to things getting built, the more tax revenue. Density = more tax revenue... because... well... more people and businesses to pay... TAXES!

:fruit: :fruit: :takemymoney: :fruit: :fruit:

It's also more tax revenue per the size of infrastructure. That sidewalk and street are gonna be the same size regardless of what gets built there, whether it be 4 single family homes or a supertall.

The critics just like to throw stones at it. No one likes to talk about what was there before.

If the put a casino there, the money the city and state will get will be through the roof. But try putting one there without the subway.

I hope the main tower dwarfs 30 HY

i hope they get a casino so they can get crackin.

a deck over the railyard ain’t gonna build itself.

so when are the casino awards supposed to be made?

after hochul and adams’ cayman and swiss bank accounts get a little fluffier?

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Originally Posted by mrnyc (Post 9976455)

They are supposed to be in the second phase of "questioning" right now. It looks like they are a couple of months (at least) behind the schedule that was given. There are a lot of issues that have to be worked out before applications can even be considered for a license, including the ULURP approvals process, which itself can take 6 to 7 months. It's the convoluted way the state has the process set up. There is opposition at every corner to a proposed casino (there is opposition to everything, so no surprise).

But New Yorkers voted to allow casinos, it's not clear why the state needed to subject this to the whims of community boards, even if their voices are advisory only. You need strong, local politicians to stand up and say this is a win-win, and so far you haven't been seeing that for any of the city proposals. You need balls to get anything big done in the city. So this is taken longer, (palms are getting greasier), but some bids are being publicly shown. Related has chosen to keep its been out of the public eye.

But the certainty is that there are three casinos coming to the area. How it works itself out remains to be seen, but there will be some unhappy people. They'll get over it.

https://www.ft.com/content/96b069a9-...c-6409574809ef

Jeff Blau rejects ‘office is dead’ claims by betting billions on new towers

Joshua Chaffin
JULY 2 2023

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The view from the observatory atop Manhattan’s Hudson Yards was clouded on a recent afternoon by smoke from distant wildfires in Canada. But that has not dimmed Jeff Blau’s outlook for the sprawling development or the high-end offices that are its speciality.

At a time when offices are dragging the commercial real estate sector into crisis, Blau, the chief executive of Related, one of the largest US developers, is planning to build 10 new towers in cities across the US and in London, an investment that will total an estimated $6.5bn.

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Blau believes there is a shortage of the most modern and lavishly equipped offices — buildings he now refers to as “double-A” or “lifestyle offices”. That conviction has arisen from the performance of Hudson Yards on the west side of Manhattan.

“We’ve had some of our best leasing over the last 12 months in the middle of all this period of time when everyone says the ‘office is dead’ — except it’s not,” Blau said, noting that Related was securing rents on the upper floors of its newest tower, 50 Hudson Yards, in excess of $200 per sq ft. That is more than double the $95.53 average asking rent for a class A building in Midtown, according to Savills.

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Its confidence in offices is such that Related is also planning to eventually build a 2mn sq ft office tower on the as-yet-undeveloped west side of Hudson Yards. That site will also host a casino if a joint-bid with Wynn Resorts is selected for one of three forthcoming New York licences.

“Every landlord thinks they have an A building, right? But some of these A buildings are 50 years old. And even if they have been well taken care of over the term, they are not the same as the new buildings,” Blau said. “These buildings truly are differentiated in every which way.”

Those at Hudson Yards boast advanced air filtration and energy efficiency, and vast floor plates that can accommodate an entire firm on a single floor. Their ever-increasing amenities range from private cafeterias overseen by celebrity chefs to concierge medical clinics and, most recently, helicopter shuttle service to local airports.

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Related received further validation recently when Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller and a one-time Hudson Yards sceptic, noted the development was now delivering $200mn more in annual tax revenue than forecast — and growing. “So this is one place I gotta say I got it wrong,” Lander told Errol Louis on the Inside City Hall programme. (As for its architecture — slammed by many critics as soulless — there were still “some questions,” Lander noted).

Other developers are also betting on super offices. SL Green has reaped similar success at One Vanderbilt, near Grand Central Station, with some rents topping $300 per sq ft. Hines, its partner on that venture, is also convinced there is a shortage of top-quality office space. RXR, meanwhile, is soon to join the fray with 175 Park Avenue.

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The original plan was for Hudson Yards’ office towers to play a supporting role by attracting the affluent to its retail space and condominium towers. In the event, they have been its star performers. Three towers — 10, 30 and 55 Hudson Yards — are now 100 per cent leased. Some early tenants, such as Tapestry and BlackRock, were lured from Midtown with favourable deals, according to leasing experts. A fourth tower, 50 Hudson Yards, is nearly 90 per cent leased.

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As for conversions, office towers were simply not designed for residential use, he noted, making it expensive to repurpose them. Adding to the cost is the need to first empty them.

“They often don’t go to zero per cent occupancy. They go like 70, 60, 30 — and then the 30 never want to leave. And then you have to spend so much money to convert that it’s basically the cost of essentially building a new building,” Blau said. “And if that’s true, you should tear the building down and build a proper building.”

^ alrighty then, lets get right to starting up the westside yards deck asap —
hopefully a casino award puts that over the top —

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/dc/df...23a2f1e9e4.jpg

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Originally Posted by MAC123 (Post 9976426)

I hope the main tower dwarfs 30 HY

YES.... as much as they tried, this "Signature Tower" is ok and not very remarkable. The topping is off and the asymmetry of it is kind of goofy. The overall slant of the tower is pretty neat though. 30 HY is more like a "Print Tower" rather than cursive, thats for sure.

And for Phase II.... LESS GLASS!

When Related touted out their masterplan visions for HY they were emphatic that the buildings were going to be a mixture of façade textures, not just glass.... at a glance when you look at the HY development it ended up looking like a glass blob emanating out of midtown, blocking the glory (and their respective texture) of the ESB and the Chrysler Building from the west side.

^ The problem with 30 Hudson is that it’s surrounded by so many tall towers, each of which could dominate many skylines. The result is a tower that looks like it’s just sticking its head above water. That’s why I hope the casino tower is more ambitious in terms of height. Hudson Yards needs a signature tower that stamfs out from the others. Maybe Affirmation Tower will ne built. Maybe not. But the casino tower needs to be minimum 1,500 ft.

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Originally Posted by NYguy (Post 9985967)

I think the problem is too many fat and mostly squarish towers...let's hope if HY gets the casino, the tower is both tall and shapely...I hope they eventually deck over the Javits center and build, if they don't move it...

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Originally Posted by DCReid (Post 9986002)

I think the problem is too many fat and mostly squarish towers...

The biggest problem with those towers is that they’re all in the same height range. From a distance, HY looks like a mountain. But those large floorplates are exactly what the city had in mind, and what companies are looking for.

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Hudson Yards boast advanced air filtration and energy efficiency, and vast floor plates that can accommodate an entire firm on a single floor.

This is where the casino tower can give us something different.

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Originally Posted by NYguy (Post 9985967)

Good point.

30 HY is inundated by towers of not just similar blandness, and materials but not separated enough by height to more thoroughly appreciate its slanted profile. This monotony is how this complex fails as a "unified development."

To be fair to Related, they’ve only built half the complex, and can’t be responsible for surrounding developments like Manhattan West or the Spiral or even 3 Hudson (whenever it rises). But as the neighborhood is zoned for large towers, maybe they should have been more ambitious in terms of a signature tower.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic..._medium=social

NYC’s Long-Awaited Rail Tunnel Set to Get Shovels in the Ground
-Tunnel under Hudson not expected to be completed until 2035
-Construction in Hudson Yards to start in coming weeks

By Skylar Woodhouse
August 10, 2023

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Evidence of the $16.1 billion, long-delayed, once-canceled effort to build a new tunnel linking New York and New Jersey will finally start appearing on Manhattan streets in the coming weeks.

Work is set to begin in Hudson Yards, the waterfront neighborhood on Manhattan’s west side, on a link to connect Penn Station with the Hudson Tunnel, the new regional and commuter rail link known as the Gateway project.

“I didn’t think a year ago that we were gonna be in a position where I could say, wow, we’re gonna see a shovel in the ground,” said Alicia Glen, New York commissioner and co-chair of the Gateway Development Commission, in an interview Wednesday. “But I feel pretty good about that.”

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Construction was able to move forward after President Joe Biden announced a $292 million grant in January, allowing the commission in May to award a contract to Amtrak to begin work on the Hudson Yards link.

“I have never seen such tremendous movement that we’ve seen in the past year,” said Glen’s New Jersey counterpart, Balpreet Grewal-Virk.

Gateway is key to easing congestion under the Hudson River, a choke point on the Northeast Corridor that runs between Boston and Washington, the country’s busiest passenger-train route. The existing tunnel is more than a century old and increasingly unreliable, Amtrak says.

Efforts to build a new tunnel have been underway since the 1990s but have been plagued by delays.

A predecessor tunnel project, with full funding in place, had started construction when it was canceled by then-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in 2010, who said the state couldn’t afford it. Gateway was proposed a year later but stalled under the Trump administration.

“We are going to put whatever sort of negative juju there had been about this project over the past ten years aside, and just concentrate on getting it done,” Glen said.

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