Jeff Blau and Bruce Beal

“We had a lot of changes throughout the company in the past year, including a fair amount of construction starts,” Jeff Blau said. 

That’s no small feat for Related Companies, one of the most active development firms in the country.

The office component of the company’s Hudson Yards neighborhood in Manhattan is now fully leased, boasting some of New York’s most expensive rents and having attracted corporate giants such as BlackRock and L’Oreal. The 28-acre development has generated $200 million more than anticipated in tax revenue for the city, too. 

To meet demand, the Manhattan-based company broke ground on another office skyscraper at Hudson Yards, which is set to total 1.3 million square feet. Accounting giant Deloitte has already pre-leased 800,000 square feet of it. Parts of Hudson Yards’ retail portion, which had struggled during the pandemic, are being transformed into offices, with Wells Fargo set to take over the former Neiman Marcus department store. 

Out in Queens, Related is building New York’s first soccer stadium, the 25,000-seat Etihad Park.

“That’s just in New York,” added Blau, who leads Related with Bruce Beal. 

There’s also Related’s data centers venture, for which it’s aiming to raise $8 billion and has committed $500 million of its money. In the meantime, it’s finishing construction on a data center outside of Toronto. In the U.S., it’s scheduled to start on two others in the coming months.

Down south in Miami, billionaire Ken Griffin approached Related to develop what’s arguably the city’s highest-profile development: a waterfront, 53-story tower for Griffin’s finance companies. The move, announced this January, was a return to form for Related after failing to launch a supertall office just a few blocks east.

In a testament to its diversification, Related also owns plants that produce steel and windows. Not only has the manufacturing division nabbed notable projects, such as J.P. Morgan Chase’s under-construction headquarters at 270 Park Avenue, but it will also help hedge against tariffs on imports. 

“We certainly didn’t anticipate tariffs,” Blau said, “but it puts us in a very competitive position in terms of new construction and managing costs.”