World’s Largest Asset Manager To Move West by 2020

The developers of BlackRock’s future home in Hudson Yards close on $3.8 billion in financing.

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Related Companies, Oxford Properties Group and Mitsui Fudosan America, the U.S. subsidiary of Japan’s largest public real estate company, have closed on the $3.8 billion in capital needed to develop 50 Hudson Yards, which will be the new west side headquarters for $5.7 trillion-in-assets BlackRock. The tower is expected to be completed in 2022. Work on the site, including the demolition of the last drive-thru McDonald’s in Manhattan, has begun and construction will begin this fall.

In a statement, Jeff Blau, ceo of Related, said, “This transaction represents the final piece of financing for the entire eastern rail yards, which now totals over $18 billion in capital from marquee investment partners.” Related and Oxford broke ground in 2012 on Hudson Yards, which is being built over the working rail yards on the west side of Manhattan between 30th Street and 34th Street. The first building, 10 Hudson Yards, opened last year. Boston Consulting Group, Coach, L’Oreal, SAP, and credit manager CBAM Partners are among the businesses that re-located to 10 Hudson Yards.

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Fifty Hudson Yards, anchored by BlackRock but which will include other tenants, will be Manhattan’s fourth largest commercial office tower with 2.9 million square feet, 58 stories and a direct connection to the newly built No. 7 subway. U.K. architectural firm Foster + Partners will design the building, Hudson Yards’s flagship property.

Related, Mitsui and Oxford, the real estate arm of OMERS, the pension plan for Ontario’s municipal employees, also partnered on 55 Hudson Yards, which will open next year and house law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, Dan Loeb’s Third Point hedge fund, and private equity firm Silver Lake, among others. Every commercial property at Hudson Yards, except Number 50 and a commercial building that will be constructed in the western rail yards, are 100 percent leased.

With BlackRock, Related and Oxford have leased 6.4 million square feet in Hudson Yards.

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