New Hudson Yards project to add much-needed housing, hotel near Javits Center

They won’t shoot off the ground overnight, but a 72-story skyscraper apartment tower and a 28-story hotel are in the future for the booming Far West Side known as the Hudson Yards District.

Govt. Kathy Hochul named a four-member development partnership as “conditionally designated” to build the tower and a Hilton-branded hotel at 418 Eleventh Ave. between West 35th and 36th streets.

The site is now a vacant lot across from the Jacob Javits Convention Center.

It will have almost 1,400 apartments of which 404 will be permanently affordable, ESDC said.

The hotel will provide 455 much-needed rooms for Javits Center attendees.

The development team, known as the Hudson Boulevard Collective, consists of publicly traded BXP (formerly Boston Properties), the well-known Moinian Group of New York-based Joseph Moinian, and minority-owned companies BRP and Urbane Group.

BRP is a partner in the successful Urban League headquarters on West 125th Street. BRP and Urbane represent 31% of the Collective’s shares.

The project is expected to cost $1.35 billion. FXCollective will be the lead architect.

The site — a block north of the Associated Companies’ Hudson Yards complex and diagonally across from the Tishman Speyer Spiral — has a troubled history.

The state has long wanted to see it developed as a complement to nearby private sector projects.

Under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Empire State Development Corp. planned to select a developer for a primarily commercial project.

But the state’s priorities shifted as the office market slumped during the pandemic and as city officials and civic groups sought more housing.

Hochul canceled the original request for proposals in 2021 and issued a new RFP calling for housing and the removal of the commercial portion.

The move doomed developer Don Peebles’ widely publicized proposal for a so-called “Affirmation Tower” that would rise to over 1,600 feet but not include housing.

Because the land is state-owned, it is exempt from city zoning rules, but must still undergo environmental review and receive public comment.

Construction is not likely to begin for 3.5 years, Crain’s reported, with the residential tower to be completed first.

ESDC chief executive and president Hope Knight said the development of the site “represents a key moment in the evolution of the Far West Side.”