Hudson Yards rendering and Stephen Ross
Related Companies founder Stephen Ross is hard at work on the biggest U.S. private real estate project ever, though a cloud of mystery still surrounds it.
Ross predicts a large sculpture in the public plaza of the 13 million-square-foot Hudson Yards megaproject – developed jointly by Related and Oxford Properties Group – will be akin to the Eiffel Tower, according to Fortune magazine. It could cost nearly $100 million alone and will be the result of a contest with six famous sculptors, including Richard Serra and Anish Kapoor.
“This sculpture will be the greatest tourist attraction in New York,” Ross told Fortune. “It will be more than the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center, but 365 days a year. It will be to this city what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris.”
The city’s former deputy mayor Dan Doctoroff, who now runs Bloomberg LP, said Ross was the sole developer willing to helm a project of Hudson Yard’s scope. Related has a $20 billion portfolio of largely retail and residential buildings, and according to a Fortune estimate, several hundred million dollars a year in free cash flow. The Midtown West project will span 26 acres, making the largest U.S. private real estate project ever,
“You’re looking at something that will be far greater than Rockefeller Center — that will be the new heart of New York City.”
As for Ross’ personal life, the 72-year-old University of Michigan alum is a Wolverines devotee and his father was an inventor of vending machines and food additives, the article said. [Fortune and Curbed] — Mark Maurer