Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/753030
120 S C T / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 6 N ew York City's mammoth Hudson Yards development wants a Statue of Liberty– worthy tourist attraction to draw traffic to its stores and restaurants. So developers Related Cos. and Oxford Properties Group have commissioned renowned designer Thomas Heatherwick, founder of London-based Heatherwick Studio, to create a landmark titled Vessel, as centerpiece to the development's five acres of public plazas, gardens and groves. The Hudson Yards continuous chain of open spaces on New York's West Side will run from Gansevoort Street, downtown, northward to Times Square, making it the largest network of public spaces developed in the borough of Manhattan since Central Park. And Vessel, which Heatherwick describes as an engaging and interactive sculpture meant to be climbed and explored, will be at the very center of it all. The piece, a geometric lattice of 154 interconnecting flights of stairs (nearly 2,500 individual steps and 80 landings), rises from a base 50 feet in diameter to widen to 150 feet at the top, overlooking the Gardens below. Vessel is being constructed of a painted steel frame, Hudson Yards public sculpture aims to be an anchor unto itself Artful marketing EMPIRE BUILDING A joint venture between DLC Management and DRA Advisors paid DDR Corp. $390 million for a portfolio of 16 shopping centers, totaling nearly 5 million square feet and almost all located in upstate New York. DDR said the cap rate on the deal was in the mid-eight range. The centers include Big Flats (N.Y.) Consumer Square, 641,200 square feet; McKinley Milestrip Center, Hamburg, N.Y., 240,500 square feet; Mohawk Commons, Niskayuna, N.Y., 530,200 square feet; Thruway Plaza, Cheektowaga, N.Y., 522,600 square feet and Walmart Plaza, Olean, N.Y., 469,300 square feet. Portfolio tenants include Dick's Sporting Goods, LA Fitness, Lowe's, Old Navy, PetSmart, Price Chopper, Tops Markets and more. Tarrytown, N.Y.–based DLC will open a new satellite office in Buffalo, N.Y., to help facilitate the management of these new properties. The portfolio will grow DLC's owned square footage to approximately 21.7 million square feet — an increase of 26 percent. "The acquisition of this portfolio represents an unparalleled growth opportunity for our firm," said Adam Ifshin, president and CEO, DLC. "It will allow us to deepen our existing relationships and build new ones with national, regional and local retailers." with underside surfaces covered by a polished, copper-colored steel skin. "My studio was commissioned to design a centerpiece for an unusual new piece of land in New York," Heatherwick said. "In a city full of eye-catching structures, our first thought was that it shouldn't just be something to look at; instead, we wanted to make something that everybody could use, touch, relate to. Influenced by images we had seen of Indian stepwells made from hundreds of flights of stairs going down into the ground, an idea emerged to use flights of stairs as building elements. The goal became to lift people up to be more visible and to enjoy new views and perspectives of each other. The idea is that it will act as a new free stage set for the city and form a new public gathering place for New Yorkers and visitors." Once Hudson Yards is completed, in 2025, it will comprise 17 million square feet of commercial and residential space, including a public school and 14 acres of public open space. Ten Hudson Yards opened earlier this year, and the Public Square and Gardens along with Vessel will open in 2018. n S I T E S & C I T I E S