![Manhattan West's public space looking south (Visualhouse)](https://thumbs.cityrealty.com/assets/smart/848x/webp/3/3e/3e6b3f67203e269a392c0269ab58b81cf08e9470/manhatan-west.jpg)
Some sunny day in the distant future, the Empire Station Complex (Moynihan Station) will be open, Madison Square Garden will be gone (in its present form at least), and a new Gateway tunnel will shuttle commuters under the Hudson River. With the sluggish pace this is all happening, we’re not holding our breaths and neither are nearby developers apparently.
![Empire Station](https://thumbs.cityrealty.com/assets/smart/1004x/webp/5/59/59329374b78e0538ea17777df67ed2376e7c9254/empire-station.jpg)
In this article:
![Manhattan West](https://thumbs.cityrealty.com/assets/smart/491x/webp/0/0d/0d315a696409f4936677498da4687d50490a4c95/manhattan-west.jpg)
As our bureaucracies move at glacial speeds to make all this much-needed infrastructure a reality, developers have been throwing up new towers like crocuses in springtime. Recently, one of the area's largest developers, Brookfield Properties, published a new CGI film that begins at a future Madison Square Garden/ Penn Station, sweeps into the finally-underway Empire Station and spirals through their completed Manhattan West project. Behold:
To refresh your memory, Manhattan West is a long-in-the-works project that rises largely atop a former rail cut servicing trains in and out of Penn Station. The six-building, multi-billion-dollar endeavor is the second largest master plan in the Far West Side area — only outsized by Related/Oxford’s Hudson Yards. It will accommodate seven million square feet of office, retail, hotel, residential and retail space.
There will be two supertall office buildings, One and Two Manhattan West; a 62-story residential rental tower called The Eugene; the reinvention of two commercial loft buildings, and a ground-up 30-story hotel-condo building. The buildings would be crisscrossed by a 60,000 square foot public park to be designed by James Corner Field Operations and 200,000 square feet of shops and restaurants will encircle a central plaza. See VR tour here.
There will be two supertall office buildings, One and Two Manhattan West; a 62-story residential rental tower called The Eugene; the reinvention of two commercial loft buildings, and a ground-up 30-story hotel-condo building. The buildings would be crisscrossed by a 60,000 square foot public park to be designed by James Corner Field Operations and 200,000 square feet of shops and restaurants will encircle a central plaza. See VR tour here.
So far, the Eugene is the only structure fully open. The 844-unit rental is the tallest of its kind in Midtown and has no fee apartments starting at $3,489/month. Amenities in the building include a rock climbing wall, basketball court, roof deck and poker, to name a few. Like One and Two Manhattan West, The Eugene was designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM) and sports an all-glass façade.
![Manhattan West](https://thumbs.cityrealty.com/assets/smart/1004x/webp/a/ad/ad3971d0100ef1d073acbf0521e24b130bedb811/manhattan-west.jpg)
Nearly finished is Five Manhattan West at 450 West 33rd Street. The Brutalist-style anvil, finished in 1969 underwent a $350 million top-to-bottom renovation designed by Joshua Prince-Ramus of REX. The once foreboding exterior has been mostly replaced with a sawtooth glass façade, and new retail space and elevators have been introduced. Amazon is slated to bring 2,000 sales, finance, marketing, and IT jobs to the 16-story building. Additionally, Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon, will occupy a 60,000-square-foot space on the ground floor.
The plan’s two commercial anchors, One and Two Manhattan West are under construction. The nearly-1,000-foot concrete core of One MW is nearly fully up and Two MW is busy preparing its foundation. The National Hockey League, Skadden Arps, and Ernst & Young are among the many tenants signed for the development.