Related Unveils $12B Project for Hudson Yards' Western Half

As the moment of truth approaches for the hottest economic development contest of the decade—Manhattan’s first casino—Related Companies has pushed its biggest pile of chips into the middle of the table with what it hopes is the winning hand.

The developer filed plans with NYC’s Planning Department this week for a $12B mega-project that will sit on a platform over the rail yards in the western half of Hudson Yards.

As the state prepares to award three casino licenses in the NYC metro area, Related has weighed in with a proposal that would see three new towers rise on a 13-acre site adjacent to the Hudson River between West 30th and West 33rd streets, according to a report in Crain’s.

The plans call for more than 1,500 apartments, 2M SF of office space and a resort hotel, as well as a public school and a day care facility.

While the kids are studying their multiplication tables in the new 750-seat school, Related is hoping that adults will be calculating the odds at the tables in a 2.7M SF casino and hotel it wants to build on the site with Las Vegas gaming giant Wynn Resorts.

The casino will occupy the bottom five floors of an 80-story, 1,750-key hotel, which also will feature a ballroom and conference space as well as retail and restaurants.

A 1,400-foot office tower will go up on the southeast portion of the site, with a 1,200-foot-tall residential tower planned for the opposite corner. According the plans, which also include six acres of public space, 324 of the 1,507 housing units in the residential tower will be designated as affordable.

The plan calls for a new betting palace to be erected on a platform that will be built over active rail lines, effectively connecting the 18M SF eastern half of Hudson Yards with the Hudson River waterfront. Related developed the eastern half, which opened in 2019, with Oxford Properties.

The site for the proposed casino sits next to the Javits Center, NYC’s convention center. It’s within walking distance of a site specified in a casino bid put forward by another titan of NYC real estate, Larry Silverstein.

Silverstein has proposed to build a 1.8M SF development on a vacant site at the corner of West 41st Street and 11th Avenue, near the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. Silverstein wants to build two 46-story towers connected by a sky bridge.

Related’s casino bid differs considerably from the original plan for the western half of Hudson Yards, which was rezoned in 2009.

Related’s original agreement with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority envisioned six residential buildings, including 265 below-market-rate units, parks and a school on the western half of the Hudson Yards site. The development was supposed to be completed by 2025.

A previous effort to redevelop the western half of Hudson Yards with a high-volume, public-facing facility—NYC’s bid to host the Summer Olympics by building a new stadium on the site, eventually to be the home of the Jets—was shot down when NIMBY opposition force the US Olympic Committee to drop the new stadium from its proposal.