Cushman & Wakefield (CWK) has been tapped as leasing agent for Brookfield (BN) Office Properties’ massive 5.4 million-square-foot Manhattan West development on Ninth Avenue between West 31st and 33rd streets.
The new development boasts two new office towers at 2 million square feet apiece, along with a smaller tower–just by a hair, at 1.2 million square feet — and a fourth building at 200,000 square feet that will be a mixed-use space.
Cushman & Wakefield powerhouse (and global brokerage chairman) Bruce Mosler will be heading the ten-person leasing team, which includes Arthur Mirante, Michael Rotchford and Maureen Kelly, among others.
Melissa Coley, a spokeswoman for Brookfield Properties, said the first office tower can go up as soon as 2015, should Cushman & Wakefield secure enough tenants.
In the meantime, Brookfield Properties will be constructing a deck over a portion of the development that rests above an active railroad, said Ms. Coley.
That deck, an estimated $300 million project, shows potential tenants that Brookfield is serious about seeing the development through, said Mr. Mosler.
“The fact [Brookfield is] already making an investment in the platform puts us in a position to be competitive in being able to say to a large tenant that we are investing already to have you in and up and running in the next 36 months,” said Mr. Mosler.
Mr. Mosler told The Commercial Observer that the project – with its proximity to Penn Station and the possibilities that a new development brings to the Penn Plaza neighborhood – is enough to lure several major tenants.
“This represents to me the most exciting new development in the country and in the City,” said Mr. Mosler, he added.
