From new office building developments to expanding businesses and potential Amazon headquarters, here is a look at some of NYC’s most recent commercial real estate and business news.
Park Avenue Office Building on the Rise
A new office building designed by Norman Foster is on the rise. Located at 425 Park Avenue, the completed building will stand nearly 900 feat tall and will be the first full-block Park Avenue office development in nearly five decades. The developer, L&L Holding, demolished 75 percent of the former 30-story building on the site in order to make room for the new tower. Leaving behind a quarter of the original building allows the developer to avoid zoning issues that would have come into play had the entire building been demolished.
Once completed, the new building will be 47 stories tall. Global financial firm Citadel has reportedly leased 200,000 square feet of space at the tower, while Danile Humm and Will Guidara of Eleven Park Madison fame have plans to open a restaurant in the building. Construction on the project is expected to be complete in 2019.
NYC May Be Home to Amazon’s New North American Headquarters
Over the past few years, New York City has been positioning itself as the East Coast rival to Silicon Valley, with a number of tech companies setting up shop in the city. To further encourage this sort of development, the city has been creating more educational and commercial spaces to foster this type of work. Cornell Tech’s new campus on Roosevelt Island and the upcoming innovation center in Union Square, for example, will provide additional networking and educational opportunities. Similarly, the tech complex in Red Hook designed by Norman Foster was designed in an effort to attract even more innovative firms.
As part of its move to become another of the country’s tech capitals, the city is also looking at a bid for Amazon’s new headquarters. In fact, the CEO of Empire State Development, which assesses new business opportunities for the state of New York, has said the state “will be doing everything we can to attract Amazon HQ2.” Mayor Bill de Blasio has also stated that the city is “very interested in the possibility of Amazon locating a headquarters in the five boroughs.”
According to Amazon’s press release, the company estimates the new HQ2 will bring as many as 50,000 jobs with an average salary of around $100,000 per year to the city where it is located. The headquarters would also bring billions of dollars worth of revenue to the city, with the company estimating that every dollar invested by Amazon in Seattle generated an additional $1.40 for the city’s economy. NYC is not the only city vying for Amazon’s attention, however, as Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia have also expressed an interest in bringing the company to their cities.
Muji’s Opens First Outpost in Williamsburg
Muji’s the Japanese clothing and housewares company, is working to expand its NYC footprint even further. With a new store opened in Williamsburg at 200 Wythe Avenue, the company has brought its sleek, minimalist aesthetic to Brooklyn. Prior to opening the new store, the company already had six stores in the city. Among these is the flagship store located on Fifth Avenue. Other than opening an outpost at the JFK Airport, the Williamsburg store represents the first time the company has expanded outside of Manhattan.