Tishman Speyer unveils plans for the “The Wheeler” — a creative office campus in the heart of downtown Brooklyn

Tishman Speyer to create 10 floors of collaborative office space — The Wheeler

Blend of adaptively reused historic space and new construction to yield 620,000 sf of modern offices with 16-foot ceilings and an acre of landscaped outdoor terraces

 

Tishman Speyer CEO Rob Speyer April 5 unveiled the firm’s plans and timetable for the development of The Wheeler, a 10-story creative office hub to rise above Macy’s historic department store in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn.

With The Wheeler, a name inspired by the visionary 19^th century Brooklyn developer Andrew Wheeler, Tishman Speyer is creating a 620,000 square-foot vertical office campus spread across 10 expansive floors.  The new development will feature Brooklyn’s largest floorplate, 16-foot ceilings on each floor, an acre of outdoor space across a series of gardened terraces and roof decks, a dedicated amenity floor, and sweeping views of Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty and New York harbor.  The Wheeler will be ready for occupancy in mid-2019.

This new development in the heart of Brooklyn’s world-renowned cultural, residential and retail scene is made possible through an innovative redevelopment partnership between Macy’s and Tishman Speyer.

“For Tishman Speyer’s first-ever project in Brooklyn, we are creating an environment that is every bit as innovative, energetic and dynamic as the borough itself,” Rob Speyer said.  “The Wheeler will celebrate its special location at the epicenter of Brooklyn and feed off the vitality of the iconic brownstone neighborhoods, open spaces, cultural venues and creative communities that surround it on all sides.”

To realize its vision for The Wheeler, Tishman Speyer is working with renowned architect Joey Shimoda, founder of the Shimoda Design Group, alongside the architectural firm Perkins Eastman.  This will be the first New York project for the Shimoda Design Group, which has established a reputation for delivering best-in-class creative office space for tenants elsewhere in the U.S.

Tishman Speyer, which is serving as project developer and operating partner for The Wheeler, is being joined by partner HNA Group, a prominent global investor based in China.  HNA is also an investment partner with Tishman Speyer on the firm’s two planned Hudson Yards development projects.  Construction financing, which was arranged by HFF, is being provided by Bank of the Ozarks.

Innovative Design and Construction

Through the partnership between Macy’s and Tishman Speyer, Macy’s will continue to own and operate the first four shopping floors and lower level of two interconnected buildings – a nine-story art deco building built in 1930 and an adjacent four-story, cast-iron structure that was built by Andrew Wheeler in the 1870s.

Tishman Speyer is constructing ten brand new office floors on top of the 1870s Wheeler building and will seamlessly integrate that new construction into the upper floors of the 1930 art deco building that Macy’s is vacating. This blend of old and new will result in 620,000 square feet of light-filled Class-A office space with 16-foot ceilings.

The lower four office floors will encompass 90,000 square feet of rentable space per floor, while the upper six office floors will range in size from 30,000 to 64,000 square feet.

Tishman Speyer is preserving all existing setbacks and creating a number of additional setbacks into the new construction.  These setbacks, which will be spread out across eight offices floors, will be transformed into an acre of landscaped outdoor terraces and roof decks for active tenant use.

The Wheeler will have its own dedicated entrance located on Livingston Street between Hoyt Street and Gallatin Place.  Additional information and renderings can be found at www.thewheelerbk.com.

Downtown Brooklyn

Tishman Speyer is developing The Wheeler during a period of unprecedented growth in Downtown Brooklyn.  Between 2012 and 2016, more than 3,000 units of housing were constructed in the greater Downtown Brooklyn area, which encompasses such internationally recognized neighborhoods as Dumbo, Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Fort Greene, Gowanus, Pacific Park and Williamsburg.  Another 5,000 apartments, more than half a million square feet of new retail and approximately 20 new hotels are currently in the development pipeline.

The city’s third largest central business district, Downtown Brooklyn is a transit-rich location with connections to all of the city’s major workforce neighborhoods, including Williamsburg, Bushwick, Long Island City, Sunset Park, and virtually all of Manhattan.  It is within a five minute walk from 10 subway lines and is a 10-minute commute to Lower Manhattan and 20 minutes to Midtown South.  LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International Airports are conveniently accessible with a 30- to 35-minute drive.

The Wheeler will also benefit from its close proximity to some of the borough’s best cultural and public open space infrastructure, including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Barclays Center and the Brooklyn Tech Triangle.

Projects in the Pipeline

In addition to The Wheeler, Tishman Speyer recently began construction in Long Island City on two 27-story towers comprising 1.2 million square feet of prime office space connected by a four-story, 43,000 square-foot retail podium. More than 800,000 square feet has already been preleased.  Across the street, Tishman Speyer is constructing three residential towers that will house approximately 1,900 rental apartments and 13,500 square feet of retail space, along with a five-story, 50,000 square-foot amenity clubhouse and a private 1.5-acre park.

Last year, Tishman Speyer unveiled plans for The Spiral, a 2.85 million square-foot office tower to be developed at the intersection of the High Line and Hudson Park Boulevard on Manhattan’s far West Side. Tishman Speyer also has assembled a second Hudson Yards development site adjacent to the new park and one block from the extended #7 subway line station, where it plans to construct a 1.3 million square-foot office tower.

“With each project, Tishman Speyer has set out to create the world’s most contemporary, collaborative workspaces,” Rob Speyer noted.  “Our developments in Downtown Brooklyn, Long Island City and Hudson Yards reflect the new way that people are thinking about urban real estate and respond to their growing desire to work, live, shop, play and eat all within the same neighborhood.”

He added, “The most exciting thing about modern day New York is the rapid emergence of these neighborhoods as viable 21^st century business districts, which is key to the city’s ability to attract new industries and ensure that existing companies will have the space they need to grow here.”

About Tishman Speyer (tishmanspeyer.com)
Tishman Speyer is a leading owner, developer, operator and fund manager of first-class real estate around the world. Founded in 1978 and led by President & CEO Rob Speyer, Tishman Speyer is active across the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia, building and managing premier office, residential and retail space in 30 key global markets for industry-leading tenants. The firm has acquired, developed and operated a portfolio approximately 164.7 million square feet with a total value of approximately US$81.9 billion spread over 402 assets. Signature assets include New York City’s Rockefeller Center and Chrysler Center, São Paulo’s Torre Norte, The Springs in Shanghai and OpernTurm in Frankfurt. Tishman Speyer currently has projects at different stages of development in Atlanta, Boston, Brasília, Chengdu, Frankfurt, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Washington, DC.

About HNA Group
HNA Group is a global Fortune 500 company focused on Tourism, Logistics and Financial Services. Since its founding in 1993, HNA Group has evolved from a regional airline based on Hainan Island into a global company with over $90 billion of assets, $30 billion in annual revenues and an international workforce of nearly 200,000 employees, primarily across North America, Europe and Asia.  At the end of December 2016, HNA Real Estate’s portfolio included 34 investment projects carried out in over 40 cities, with a building area of 49.671 million square meters. It manages 20 property projects including office buildings, retails, hotels, and apartments, with an area of 18.037 million square meters. HNA Real Estate is now developing the CBD of Hainan International Tourism Island with an area of nearly 3,000 mu and the South Sea Pearl River Man-made Island with an area of over 7,000 mu. For more information, please visit www.hnagroup.com.