Tishman Speyer Unveils Manhattan Office Tower

The developer broke ground on The Spiral in 2018. Image by Laurian Ghinitoiu, courtesy of BIG|Bjarke Ingels Group

Tishman Speyer has officially opened The Spiral, a 2.8 million-square-foot office skyscraper in Manhattan. The 66-story tower at 66 Hudson Blvd. marked BIG|Bjarke Ingels Group‘s first commercial high-rise architecture project in New York City. The development team also included Turner Construction, Adamson Associates and structural engineer WSP Cantor Seinuk.

Designed to connect the indoor workspaces to the terraces on the exterior on every floor, The Spiral has floorplates that range from 60,000 to 28,000 square feet, getting smaller as the tower ascends. The building also includes 27,000 square feet of retail space.

Amenities include Zo. Clubhouse which has an open-air terrace at the southeast corner of the 66th floor with dining options; The Studio, an event venue and workspace setting; 30 car parking spaces with charging stations for electric cars; and a bicycle room with private showers and changing rooms.

An office high-rise nearly 10 years in the making

Back when the project was known as the Hudson Spire, developer Tishman Speyer paid $438 million for the site in April 2014. In 2016, the company unveiled the BIG conceptual design for The Spiral and filed the plans for the tower.

In late 2016, Tishman Speyer paid $78 million to the city and the state for tower air rights in order to increase the size of the Spiral. The company had previously paid $30 million in 2015 in another air-rights transaction that allowed the developer to add 350,000 square feet to the building.

In 2018, Tishman Speyer obtained $1.8 billion in construction financing from Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc. for the project, which ended up being valued at $3.6 billion. That same year, the developer broke ground on the building and topped out in early 2021.

Tenancy at The Spiral

Since its development stages, Tishman Speyer landed several tenants at The Spiral. In 2018, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer signed a 20-year lease agreement for 800,000 square feet. This was followed by several other deals which included AllianceBernstein’s commitment to 189,000 square feet. International bank HSBC will also relocate its headquarters at the Spiral under a 20-year, 265,000-square-foot lease.

In early 2023, Tishman Speyer inked a total of 43,000 square feet at the tower. A few months ago, global asset manager Marshall Wace signed a lease for 79,000 square feet and ProShares took 9,000 square feet, the New York Post reported.

Manhattan’s office market landscape

With the rise of vacancy and a significant slowdown in development activity, the office market is still influenced by alternative work practices. Manhattan had a supply pipeline of 6.5 million square feet as of September, representing 1.4 percent of stock, 20 basis points lower than the national figure, according to the latest CommercialEdge report. The vacancy rate was at 17.7 percent, marking a 200-basis-point increase year-over-year.

Some New York City projects that started before the on-set of the pandemic are now complete. In September, the joint venture of SL Green Realty Corp., National Pension Service of Korea and Hines delivered the $2.3 billion redevelopment of One Madison Avenue, a 1.4 million-square-foot office tower in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park.

Two Trees Management also opened The Refinery at Domino, a 15-story office building in Brooklyn that encompasses 460,000 square feet. The property is part of the $2.5 billion redevelopment of the Domino Sugar Factory.