Hochul Taps BXP, BRP Companies for Site K

Three years after scrapping a Cuomo-era vision for a site on the Far West side, the Hochul administration has tapped a team that includes BXP and BRP Companies to build a $1.4 billion housing and hotel project there.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday announced that a joint venture of BXP (formerly known as Boston Properties), Moinian Group, BRP Companies and the Urbane Group have been selected to build a two-tower project at 418 11th Avenue, also known as Site K.

The East tower, which will rise 72 stories, will feature 1,349 residential units, of which 404 will be affordable. The 28-story West tower will house a 455-key hotel.

“New Yorkers want convenient access to affordable high-quality housing near employment opportunities and public amenities such as Hudson River Park, the waterfront and the High Line,” Hilary Spann, BXP’s executive vice president for the New York region, said in a statement.

A rendering of Site K at 418 11th Avenue

The announcement is the culmination of a multi-year process. In December 2021, Hochul rescinded a request for proposals for the site, which had been issued in March by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The original RFP had called for commercial or mixed-use development.

In July 2023, the Hochul administration reissued the RFP, instead mandating housing and barring office space from being included. The changes were a recognition of the “changed economic environment,” according to the administration, and a response to calls from the community board to prioritize housing on the state-owned site.

The change in governors and replacement blueprints were not the only intrigue surrounding Site K, however.

The vacant plot across the street from the Javits Convention Center drew a lot of media attention, in part, because a team led by developer Don Peebles preemptively released renderings of its vision for the site.

Dubbed “Affirmation Tower,” the project would have been funded mostly by Black-owned companies, designed by architect Sir David Adjaye, and featured at least two hotels, office space, an entertainment center and a civil rights museum. Peebles balked at the inclusion of housing on the site, but this year released revised renderings for a project that included mixed-income housing, according to Yimby.

The campaign failed, as Peebles’ group was not chosen. BRP, however, is a Black-owned firm, led by Geoff Flournoy and Meredith Marshall, as is Urbane, headed by James Johnson-Piett.

“There are very few large developable sites in Manhattan,” said Andrew Cohen, managing director at BRP. “If we are able to provide housing at scale, I think it benefits the entire city.”

The state ultimately received seven applications for the reissued RFP, according to Empire State Development officials. The applications for the project were reviewed by a selection committee made up of members of ESD’s legal, real estate and asset management teams, as well as representatives from Javits. Applications were scored based on the project design and program, financial return for the state, developer experience and other factors, such as inclusion of minority- and women-owned businesses.

“We took our time with it because this was an important, complex project,” said Arden Sokolow, executive vice president of real estate and planning at ESD.

BRP and Urbane, both certified minority-owned companies, hold a 31 percent stake in the joint venture (with BRP owning 30 percent and Urbane 1 percent). BXP and Moinian each own 34.5 percent.

BRP’s experience developing mixed-income housing, as well as BXP’s deep pockets and experience working with Amtrak (the project involves building over active train tracks), contributed to the team’s high score.

Moinian and BXP teamed up to bid on the original RFP, with a proposal that included some residential. The two companies had also partnered on a neighboring site, 3 Hudson Boulevard, a planned but stalled office tower.

“We’ve had a close connection to it, in addition to having a strong presence on the Far West Side,” Michael Zarifpoor, SVP at Moinian Group, said.

Of the 30 percent of units that will be offered at below-market rents, 25 percent will be affordable to those earning, on average, 60 percent of the area media income, while the remaining 5 percent will be for those earning up to 130 percent of the AMI. Those numbers align with the requirements laid out in the 485x property tax break for projects of this size.

The residential portion of the project will have a floor area ratio of 18, meaning that space will be 18 times larger than the size of the lot. As part of the state budget this year, lawmakers agreed to amend a state law that limited the city’s residential FAR to 12. The project at Site K will be the first in New York City to exceed that threshold, according to Hochul.

In order to use higher FAR, sites or neighborhoods will need to be rezoned. Because this is state-owned land, however, the project will go through a general project plan process, which allows the state to override local zoning.

The proposed project, dubbed HDSN (pronounced Hudson), will also include a community center, which will house a 24,000-square-foot climate museum, and a restaurant and training facility run by the nonprofit Emma’s Torch. The development team also plans various streetscape improvements.