Hochul Announces $1.4B Mixed-Use Project at Hudson Yards’ 418 11th Avenue

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday that a $1.35 billion mixed-use project will be built at Hudson Yards’ Site K, a state-owned vacant lot at 418 11th Avenue adjacent to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

Hudson Boulevard Collective, a partnership involving BRP Companies, BXP (formerly Boston Properties), The Moinian Group and Urbane Development, has been selected to develop the project, which would be sustainably built and include 1,349 residential units, according to a press release from the governor’s office.

Called HDSN (pronounced “Hudson”), the proposed development would comprise a 72-story East Tower and a 28-story West Tower and include 404 permanently affordable homes, a full-service hotel, and a fitness and wellness center, according to the announcement.

In addition, the project would feature a 24,000-square-foot, five-story podium for the permanent home of the Climate Museum, as well as a 4,000-square-foot Emma’s Torch Restaurant and a 60,300-square-foot Life Time Fitness center within the development’s retail space, the release said.

“This transformative development embodies our vision for New York’s future — creating affordable homes, advancing our climate goals, and generating economic opportunity for all New Yorkers,” Hochul said in a statement Thursday. “This project is an example of how thoughtful development can tackle our housing crisis while building vibrant, inclusive communities.”

Hochul’s announcement seems to foil the Peebles Corporation’s big plans from 2022 to turn the 1.2-acre site at 418 11th Avenue into a 2 million-square-foot mixed-use development called Affirmation Tower.

Don Peebles, along with McKissack & McKissack, Exact Capital and Witkoff, originally submitted a request for proposals for the site in March 2021 under then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

Once Hochul took over, her administration shelved the developers’ original request and decided to realign the site toward Hochul’s priorities — including affordable housing, which Peebles’s proposal did not include.

Peebles’s project was put on hold in 2023. In March of this year, his plans for the tower were redesigned to include mixed-income apartments, a convention center, retail space, community facilities and an observation deck, according to New York YIMBY.

However, the proposal selected by the governor’s office does not include any component of Affirmation Tower, a source familiar with the matter told CO. Peebles did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The state’s proposed project under the Hudson Boulevard Collective will be sponsored by the New York Convention Center Development Corporation, a subsidiary of Empire State Development, the state’s economic development agency, according to the release.

The proposal still must undergo environmental review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act and be presented for public review before it is approved, the governor’s office said.

“Amid a historic housing crisis across New York City, this project represents a pivotal step toward delivering much-needed homes to Manhattan’s West Side,” Moinian Group CEO Joseph Moinian said in a statement. “We look forward to advancing this transformative project for the West Side community, a region of Manhattan that our firm is deeply embedded within and committed to.”

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.