Brookfield’s NYC Office Tower Tops Out

Two Manhattan West. Image courtesy of Brookfield Properties

The 2 million-square-foot Two Manhattan West, the second of four office towers in Brookfield Properties’ Manhattan West project, has topped out. The 58-story building is scheduled for completion in 2023.

The 8-acre, six-building Manhattan West project is adjacent to and immediately east of the Hudson Yards redevelopment.

Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Manhattan West’s master architect, Two Manhattan West can accommodate multiple lobbies and a black car drop-off and is already 25 percent preleased.

The location provides ready access to transportation hubs Penn Station and Moynihan Train Hall, as well as Madison Square Garden and the High Line, and the variety of dining, retail and entertainment offerings in the mixed-use Manhattan West development.

In addition to Two Manhattan West, the neighborhood features office buildings One and Five Manhattan West, as well as The Lofts, with nearly 6 million square feet of office space leased to tenants such as the NHL, Ernst & Young, JPMorgan Chase and Amazon.

The project also includes The Eugene luxury residences; Pendry Manhattan West Hotel; restaurants Zou Zou’s, Ci Siamo, and Daily Provisions; and art installation Citrovia.

A Brookfield spokesperson did not reply to Commercial Property Executive’s request for additional information.

A healthy market, considering

Two Manhattan West landed its anchor tenant back in late 2019, when Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP agreed to take 481,000 square feet, or 13 full floors, there as the law firm’s new national headquarters.

Brookfield’s first office tower in Manhattan West, the 2.1 million-square foot One Manhattan West, also did well with preleasing. It opened in October 2019 already about 90 percent leased.

The Manhattan office market ended 2021 strongly, with a pandemic-record 8.3 million square feet of leasing activity in the fourth quarter, according to a report from Newmark. The company cautioned, however, that “the rise of the Omicron variant … may moderate momentum.”

The flight to quality has accelerated, Newmark reports, “with leases signed in trophy product growing as a percentage of overall velocity from 7.7 percent in 2020 to 13.1 percent in 2021.”