[NYguy]

The office tower will be 40 Hudson Yards.


https://www.crainsnewyork.com/opinion/commentary/cny-public-private-partnership-20260511/

Op-ed: Hudson Yards expansion is good for NY, says Related CEO Jeff Blau



By Jeff Blau
May 13, 2026

New York City is facing a genuine affordability crisis: not enough homes or good-paying jobs and a $5 billion budget gap. There is no single solution but one of the most effective tools we have is enabling private investment that creates real public benefits.

Building the next phase of Hudson Yards would do exactly that: deliver up to 4,000 new apartments with a minimum of 625 affordable homes, 35,000 union construction jobs, a new K-8 public school, a 6.6-acre green public park and $2 billion in revenue for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It would be a $13 billion private investment in New York. But nothing can be built on top of the working rail yards without a mechanism to first pay for the costs of the complex platform infrastructure, which have ballooned to over $2 billion.

Fortunately, the first phase of Hudson Yards is a proven model: More than $15 billion in private funds were invested to transform 15 acres of rail yards into a vibrant new neighborhood with 12 million square feet of residential, commercial office and retail space. The development delivered 1,775 housing units, including 647 affordable homes, and created 23,000 union construction jobs. Bonds from the Hudson Yards Infrastructure Corporation supported the 7 train extension and Bella Abzug Park. And, as office buildings came online, those bonds became a boon to NYC’s finances, today remitting in excess of $390 million annually to the city’s coffers.

It’s understandable that some New Yorkers are skeptical of large-scale development. But our plan to use this payment in lieu of taxes program to support the infrastructure on the western yards is in no way a gift to Related; zero money comes from the city upfront. Only the future incremental taxes created by the development itself are utilized for the bonds to move this project forward. And as the site sits empty, it currently delivers no real estate taxes.

That gets to the heart of the issue: The very things New Yorkers are asking for — more affordable housing, new public spaces and improved transit — require levels of investment and funding that the city simply doesn’t have. We’ve seen what happens when promises are made and not delivered. Look at Atlantic Yards.

But our plan for the next phase of Hudson Yards is a proven model. That’s why it won the unanimous support of the City Council and the prior administration. Without this public-private partnership, it will not move forward.

Fortunately, we have momentum. Our work with the Long Island Rail Road on the infrastructure is active. There’s substantial interest from industry leaders to anchor 40 Hudson Yards, the new class AA office that would kick off development. But companies can’t make decisions about investing in an environment of uncertainty. The market needs confidence that advancing economic development is a priority.

Related’s track record over fifty years speaks to what’s possible when the public and private sector come together: from building new affordable and market-rate housing on Roosevelt Island, to preserving Manhattan Plaza for more than two decades, to building mixed-income housing throughout West Chelsea; to today, building the largest all-affordable housing development in 40 years at Willets Point, Queens. Related’s portfolio in New York City includes more than 11,000 affordable homes owned, preserved and under development, and we have never converted a single affordable apartment to market rate.

I have been building in this city long enough to know that big projects always face headwinds. Community boards have a knee-jerk inclination to say no. NIMBY opponents organize. But we have spent years debating the western rail yards. First the stadium, then Hudson Yards, then a casino, and finally, months of intense negotiations crafting a plan that reflects community feedback on housing and is still financially viable.