Brookfield (BN) Office Properties may tack on a residential portion to its 5.4 million square foot Manhattan West project, The Wall Street Journal reported this morning.
The subsidiary of Canadian firm Brookfield Asset Management told reporters during its quarterly conference call last week that it might add 900 residential units to the development, located on Ninth Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets.
To show that Brookfield Properties is serious, it said that it lured in Phil Wharton, formerly a vice president at residential developing firm AvalonBay, as its new Director of U.S. Development.
As The Wall Street Journal reports:
Wharton, a Wharton School grad, also said Brookfield plans to create a pedestrian plaza with a significant retail component that will connect with the High Line.
He’ll take over in the role previously filled by Veronica Hackett, co-founder of the Clarett Group, who left late last year.
Brookfield raised the possibility that it would use some of those residential units to replace some office space that it originally planned for the development.
drosen@observer.com
