New York City’s Newest $15 Billion Skyscraper Is Now Being Built

New York City’s Newest $15 Billion Skyscraper Is Now Being Built
World

New York City’s Newest $15 Billion Skyscraper Is Now Being Built

New York City has seen new skyscrapers popping up left and right, with the latest being the first tower in the Hudson Yards, a $15 billion skyscraper.

The 48-story $15 billion skyscraper, which is slated to be finished in 2015, had its groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owns the property, is leasing the land to developers for $1 billion.

skyscraper NYC

“This is the future of New York,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a big proponent of the Hudson Yards project. 

The city rezoned 60 blocks to accommodate the project, approved $106 million in property tax exemptions and issued $3 billion in bonds to pay for an extension of the 7 train subway, which will go to the far West Side, all the way to 11th Ave.


The complete transformation of the Hudson Yards into a sprawling, lively, skyscraper-ridden new commercial district will take approximately 12 years.


The project entails the construction of an $800 million platform to cover the existing railroad tracks.

The new office tower in the works will not require that platform.

Skyscraper NYC

The Bloomberg administration was pushing to develop the area for years, and it was a focal point of their unsuccessful bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, which ended up in London.

Developer Stephen Ross, chairman of the privately-owned real estate giant Related Companies, compared the Hudson Yards project to the creation of the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Lincoln Center and other iconic New York structures in the beginning of the twentieth century.

Mayor Bloomberg said that Tuesday’s groundbreaking of the $15 billion skyscraper shows that “we are moving forward” “even in this challenging economy.”


The project will create an estimated 23,000 construction jobs and space for more than 40,000 people to live or work, the mayor said.

James Gilbert | Elite.

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