The developer behind Essex Crossing plans to build a nearly half-million square-foot office tower on Trinity Church land at Hudson Square — a sign of confidence in Manhattan’s troubled commercial market.

Taconic Partners and its investment partner Nuveen Real Estate unveiled images of One Grand, a tower to rise at the corner of Grand and Varick streets where Soho, Hudson Square and Tribeca converge.

The project designed by SHoP Architects is shown here for the first time.

It will rise 28 stories with 430,763 square feet of office space.

The first office floor will be 100 feet above ground with a public school and retail below it.

The land is currently vacant.

Taconic won’t start construction until it finds an anchor tenant — standard for nearly all new developments. The leasing task falls to a JLL team headed by New York president Peter Riguardi.

Several “supertall” office projects are theoretically planned in Midtown, but their designs are vague and none is anywhere near to coming out of the ground during the market downturn.

One Grand’s more modest size and fully-realized architecture give it a head start over the field.

The land is owned by Trinity Church, which remains one of Lower Manhattan’s major landowners. It chose Taconic and Nuveen to develop the site in 2019.

Taconic says the tower will boast advanced wellness and sustainability features, a 13,000-square-foot amenities center, 20,000 square feet of outdoor space and 14-foot ceiling heights.

Riguardi, citing Manhattan’s “much-documented flight to quality,” said One Grand “is an opportunity for forward-thinking companies to secure a headquarters presence in this prized area.”

Taconic, a powerhouse in commercial and residential real estate, is currently developing the Hudson Research Center on far West 54th Street as well as three apartment buildings. The company’s Essex Crossing on the Lower East Side has been widely acclaimed as one of the city’s finest mixed-use projects ever.

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai set up a new Human Immune Monitoring Center (HIMC) at the Hudson Research Center, Commercial Observer has learned.

Icahn Mount Sinai signed a 10-year lease for 10,000 square feet of prebuilt lab space inside the development at 619 West 54th Street, according to owners Silverstein Properties and Elevate Research Properties, Taconic Partners’ life sciences arm. Asking rents in the property are more than $100 per square foot.

The HIMC will try to create blueprints of patient-specific immune profiles to offer them more specific diagnoses and treatments, according to owners. Since the space was part of Hudson Research Center’s prebuilt lab options, which are 90 percent leased, HIMC was able to get up and running quickly.

This isn’t the first deal with Ichan at the 320,000-square-foot life sciences development. In May, the school signed a 23,000-square-foot lease and partnered with the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to open the Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine.

“We continue to see the resiliency of the life sciences market here in New York City at a time when the overall commercial real estate market remains challenged by macroeconomic conditions,” Matthew Weir, president of Elevate and executive vice president at Taconic, said in a statement. “We are excited to grow our relationship with Mount Sinai and are proud to be nearing the end of our successful redevelopment of the Hudson Research Center.”

The deal was done directly between the tenant and owner, a spokesperson for the landlords said.

The 10-story building between 11th Avenue and the West Side Highway was previously a film editing house for Warner Bros. Pictures.

Taconic bought it in 2012 for about $110 million with plans to turn it into a research center, as CO previously reported. Silverstein jumped on board in 2017 — when the center opened — after buying a majority stake that valued the property at more than $180 million, the New York Post reported.

In September, Silverstein put its ownership stake up for sale, with pricing expected to reach into the $300 million range, as CO previously reported.

Nicholas Rizzi can be reached at nrizzi@commercialobserver.com.

Governor Kathy Hochul today celebrated the groundbreaking for the People’s Theatre: Centro Cultural Inmigrante, a new 19,000-square foot performing arts center in Manhattan’s Inwood neighborhood that will also serve as the home for the theater nonprofit organization The People’s Theatre Project. The center, which will be located at 407 West 206th Street, will amplify the voices of New York City’s diverse immigrant communities and cultivate work by local artists and arts organizations.

“As the largest Latine theater in New York City and the city’s first Dominican-managed cultural institution, the People’s Theatre Project’s new home will be more than a performing arts center – it will be a tribute to the diverse artists, cultures, and communities that define our great state,” Governor Hochul said. “New York has always cherished its diversity and inclusiveness, and through our support for timeless institutions like this one, we always will. I will continue working with my partners in government and the arts community to find ways to celebrate the history, creativity, and culture of all New Yorkers, and I look forward to cutting the ribbon on this beautiful space in a few short years.”

Founding Executive Artistic Director of the People’s Theatre Project Mino Lora said, “The People’s Theatre: Centro Cultural Inmigrante will be an exemplary space, developing and producing theater that is more equitable and representative of immigrants, Latine artists and our communities of color. For the last 15 years, we have been committed to uplifting the voices of marginalized communities, and The People’s Theatre will connect, inspire, and catalyze generations of immigrants and their allies. We are extremely grateful for the catalytic support from Governor Hochul, EDC, DCLA, The Miranda Family Fund and New York-Presbyterian during this exciting moment for our neighborhood and our organization, with an opportunity to build a community-rooted and anti-oppressive cultural institution in New York City from the ground up.”

Luis A. Miranda Jr. and Lin-Manuel Miranda of the Miranda Family Fund said, “It is with tremendous pride that we break ground today on The People’s Theatre: Centre Cultural Inmigrante, here in Northern Manhattan. It is no secret our family loves this neighborhood. This is because Northern Manhattan is a vibrant, hardworking community of diverse creators, makers, movers and shakers – all looking to share their stories. Theater is about community, offering a space where art, culture, and identity converge. Our uptown neighborhood is more than ready to have a permanent home for its theater practitioners, to nurture and showcase countless generations of storytellers and stories to come.”

On the surface, the news from the New York City office sector may look grim: vacancy rates nearing 20%, occupancy rates stubbornly stuck at around 50%, interest rates rising, values dropping, anemic investment sales activity and owners giving keys back to lenders.

Fortunately, that isn’t the full story. As I discussed in my previous Forbes article, landlords are holding onto Class A, well- tenanted buildings even as they let go of others. Additionally, four other strategies show long-term health for the office sector:

1. Repriced assets are attracting investors to properties with current weak fundamentals but strong potential.
2. Entities such as Hyundai, NYU and Enchanté are snapping up buildings for their own use.
3. New York City’s housing crisis has prompted developers to consider office to residential conversions, which I explored in a March 2023 Forbes article.
4. Also, while office finds its footing, there is another workplace and innovation asset class that continues to see strong demand citywide: life sciences. In fact, this demand is leading a number of owners to explore activity in this appreciating sector.

West End Labs, Elevate Research Properties’ just-completed life sciences center at 125 West End Ave., signed its first tenant. Graviton Bioscience, a developer of therapeutics to treat autoimmune diseases, leased 30,000 square feet in the new, 400,000 square-foot building.

Graviton will use the space as its new research and office headquarters. The asking rent was $125 per square foot.

Elevate president Matthew Weir said, “We are excited to announce the opening of New York City’s premier lab building and we are thrilled to welcome Graviton Bioscience as our first tenant partner. This combination of milestones has created great momentum for the project and the New York life sciences market as a whole.”

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that development of two interconnected, mixed-income, mixed-use residential buildings with nearly 700 apartments, including 281 affordable units, is underway in the Inwood neighborhood of Upper Manhattan. The $416 million Inwood development will feature all-electric heating and cooling and other sustainable features that advance the State’s climate goals and offer free broadband internet to residents.

“My administration is fighting to ensure every New Yorker has the opportunity to live in a safe, secure, sustainable home in a thriving community like Inwood,” Governor Hochul said. “This development will not only create new homes but will also provide essential services and amenities that increase quality of life and boost the economy for the entire community.”

The development announced today is part of Governor Hochul’s $25 billion comprehensive Housing Plan that will create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes across New York, including 10,000 with supportive services for vulnerable populations, plus the electrification of an additional 50,000 homes.

Together, the buildings at 405 and 407 West 206th Street will have a mix of studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments. Forty percent of the apartments are reserved for residents earning at or below 80 percent of the Area Median Income. An additional ten percent of apartments will have rents restricted up to 30 percent of 120 percent of AMI and be subject to NYC Rent Stabilization Guidelines. The remaining units will be market rate apartments.

The project is pursuing a LEED BD+C Silver certification and meets the new sustainability standards established by New York State Homes and Community Renewal in 2022 which promote healthier living environments and highly efficient buildings, and support the goals set by the New York State Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. In addition to advancing the State’s climate goals, 405 and 407 West 206th Street will offer free broadband, building on the Governor’s ConnectALL initiative, which has made historic investments to deliver high-speed internet in underserved communities and close the digital divide for lower-income New Yorkers.

Shared amenities for all residents will include landscaped courtyards, an attended lobby, multiple roof decks, a fitness center, co-working spaces, lounge spaces and music rehearsal rooms. The complex will house a supermarket under the city of New York’s Food Retail Expansion to Support Health Program (FRESH) program, neighborhood retail space, parking, and an immigrant-centered performing arts center to be owned and operated by the People’s Theatre Project.

Financing for the affordable portion of the new development includes nearly $70 million in Low Income Housing Tax Credit equity and nearly $82 million in tax-exempt bonds and almost $182 million in taxable bonds provided by New York State Homes and Community Renewal. In addition, the project applicant is applying for an estimated $39.5 million in tax credits following work completed to investigate and clean up contamination under Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) oversight as part of the state’s successful Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP).

The bonds were purchased by Wells Fargo Municipal Capital Strategies and Wells Fargo Bank. Credit enhancement will be provided by Fannie Mae at conversion. The Low-Income Housing Tax Credits were purchased by the Urban Investment Group within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Additional sources include nearly $87 million equity from the joint venture and the Urban Investment Group.

The development is a joint venture among LMXD affiliate of L+M Development Partners, MSquared and Taconic Partners. The Community League of the Heights (CLOTH) is the community sponsor. The buildings were designed by Beyer Blinder Belle Architects

Essex Crossing, the thriving mixed-use complex near the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge, has apartments, offices, shops, restaurants, a movie theater and a photography museum. Soon it will have a climbing gym, too.

VITAL, which has three locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, signed a lease for 45,000 square feet at 182 Broome St.

It will move into the vacant space in spring 2024 and offer instruction in climbing, bouldering, yoga, cycling and weightlifting.

New York Yankees legend Lou Gehrig, the “Iron Horse” who played in a then-record 2,130 consecutive games from 1925-1939, was born at 309 E. 94th St.

So it’s altogether appropriate that developer Elevate Research Properties, a subsidiary of Taconic Partners, plans to name a cutting-edge research facility it’s building at the site Iron Horse Labs. It’s a tribute to the great first baseman who died in 1941 at age 37, a victim of the paralyzing condition known as ALS, which is commonly called “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.”

“His story can inspire life-saving research,” said Elevate president Matthew Weir.

The 200,000 square-foot project, reported here for the first time, will be leased as a potential “flagship opportunity to medical and scientific research organizations, life-science laboratories and academic medical institutions,” Weir said.

Elevate and its partners, Nuveen Real Estate and Flatiron Equities, bought the land for $70 million, part of their total $350 million development cost. The new building will have features such as a unique, double-height specialty research space, sophisticated energy-efficient systems and several outdoor terraces.

An exterior plaque at the site marking Gehrig’s birthplace, installed by the Yankees in the 1990s, is to be restored and re-installed in the lobby.

I really should show you the roof,” said Alexa von Tobel, perched on a white bouclé chair in the gleaming Manhattan offices of her venture firm, Inspired Capital. “Let’s pop up there.”

We whisked out of the ninth-floor conference room, past a large portrait by Alex Katz, the Brooklyn-born artist currently receiving a Guggenheim Museum retrospective, to ascend to the top of 817 Broadway. The 125-year-old Beaux Arts tower just below Union Square has turned into an unexpected locus for New York City’s tech investors and founders, not to mention their spouses, siblings, college friends and interior designers.

“They did a beautiful job,” said von Tobel, exiting from an elevator onto a finished roof deck with tables and benches encircled by the space’s distinguishing feature: a crown of brick arches. “The views are insane. At night, the city is glowing. And when it’s not freezing, you can work from up here.” You can throw parties up here, too, as Inspired has done with fellow building tenant Union Square Ventures.

While big tech has claimed an ever-larger slice of the Big Apple over the last several years—Netflix has a new studio in Brooklyn, Meta Platforms has spread to the stately Farley Building near Penn Station and Google has expanded to fresh confines at Pier 57—the city’s venture capitalists have carved up a smaller footprint centered around a single area, roughly a mile south and a mile west of Union Square. And as VCs have sought square footage here, 817 Broadway has become a blinking-red beacon.