Luxury retailer Coach, Inc. will become the first tenant in a tower that developers Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group, both of New York, plan to build on Midtown Manhattan’s West Side. Coach will occupy more than 600,000 square feet, or more than one-third of the initial tower of the Eastern Rail Yards, part of the 26-acre, mixed-use Hudson Yards site that the city hopes to develop. The 1.7-million-sq-ft, 51-story tower will generate more than 20,000 construction jobs, according to NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s office. When completed in 2015, the tower will be the largest commercial building in New York City. Construction is expected to start in mid 2012.
The Hudson Yards site is the single largest piece of undeveloped property in Manhattan. The tower, along with completion of a new park and the No. 7 subway line extension that will nearly reach the site, will have a “domino effect” on development of the rest of the proposed Hudson Yards, Bloomberg said in announcing the deal with other stakeholders and city officials earlier today at the site. Neither he nor the stakeholders detailed financing plans for the tower or the rest of the site.