Developer Joe Moinian is rebooting 3 Hudson Blvd. and has brought in JLL to oversee the development of the new office tower.
Since Peter Riguardi’s team at JLL was hired in August, the architects at FXFOWLE have redesigned the building to better align with today’s office tenants — incorporating larger floor plates, for example.
The redesign boosts the tower to 2 million square-feet on 53 floors while lowering its height to 940 feet. Completion is now scheduled for 2021.
To kick off the reboot, a groundbreaking ceremony is to be held Friday with elected officials.
“We have also brought JLL to help us on every aspect of this project — be it leasing, financing, capital partners and input from their advisory board,” said Moinian.
Riguardi, chairman and president of JLL’s Tri-State Region, explained it was hired because of JLL’s “vast experience” representing tenants of scale who have moved to ground up development and its “market-leading” debt business.
“We are putting together the puzzle: how do we find a tenant and how do we find a partner and move forward under the best circumstances for the Moinian Group,” he said.
Declining to elaborate on a “partner,” other sources explained this could take the form of a tenant that wants to buy its own floors or an investor or fund that wants to become a minority stakeholder.
Moinian, for instance is partners with SL Green Realty Corp. on other projects including 3 Columbus Circle.
Sitting on the northeast corner of West 34th Street and 11th Avenue across from the Javits Center, the site is also bounded by West 35th Street and the west side of Hudson Boulelvard Park, right by the turtle shell-covered entrance to the No. 7 train.
“We are sitting on a full block with unobstructed views — 360-degree views, to the south, northeast and especially west, because we have Javits [the low-rise convention center] across the street,” Moinian said. “From the fourth floor you can see the water and New Jersey.”
Purchased in 2005 from Verizon for $54.788 million, the MTA has been using the site for a decade to stage the No. 7 subway construction. It was recently turned over to the developer, who has begun work on its foundation, which goes right into the bedrock.
As a forest of Related Cos. and Brookfield towers are already open or rising nearby, Moinian’s well-located site is just one of a few remaining spots in the Hudson Yards area for a world-class single-or multi-tenant HQ.
But like the last bridesmaid to get engaged, despite years of efforts by Avison Young to ensure the building’s former iteration was widely courted, poked and prodded, there’s still no ring on the finger — or anchor tenant inked on a dotted line.
The office tower was designed by Dan Kaplan of FXFOWLE to face the sun as it twists off the city’s 22 degree-angled street grid.
“We made the building way more efficient,” Moinian said of the new LEED Gold targeted structure.
The center core base floors will now spread from 50,400 square feet with 18-foot floor-to-ceiling heights to the tower floors of over 40,000 square feet.
There’s also a setback on the eighth floor for a terrace.
The top two floors are set aside for a conference center, or perhaps executive or cafeteria dining, depending on the tenant.
Automated parking is expected to be available.
With 12,600 square feet of retail, Moinian is now courting a white table restaurant as well as a café with outdoor seating along Hudson Boulevard Park.
A bench in that fountain-filled oasis has been named for Oskar Brecher, the Moinian Group’s executive who spearheaded the development of the building and passed away suddenly last year.
The president of the Hudson Yards / Hell’s Kitchen Alliance, Robert Benfatto, thinks that 3 Hudson’s time has come. “Tenants have been popping up, but it just takes a long time to lease,” Benfatto observed.
Three years ago, Moinian noted, “It was who is willing to come? And now it’s who’s not coming? Now I think it’s happening. All the chips are in place.”
