Tishman Speyer, Qatari Diar partner on $700M Long Island City mixed-use development

Dive Brief:

New York City-based developer Tishman Speyer has partnered with Qatar-backed investment fund Qatari Diar to build a $700 million, 1.1 million-square-foot, mixed-use office complex in Long Island City, NY.
Shared office space provider WeWork, with a lease deal for 250,000 square feet, will anchor the 27-story, two-tower office and retail development and represent the largest share of the 800,000 square feet of preleased space.
Tishman Speyer is also developing a 1,900-unit, three-tower luxury residential development in the same area, bringing its total construction activity in the area to 3.5 million square feet, according to Curbed New York.

Dive Insight:

Tishman Speyer will receive $65 million in tax breaks on the project, which is situated next to the developer's existing 22-story Gotham Two office high-rise, and it should be complete in 2019, according to Real Estate Weekly. The two office towers will be connected via four stories of retail, dining and parking.

According to Tishman Speyer, Long Island City has been the target of a job creation initiative, spearheaded by New York City, and is "anchored" by the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island. Hudson Companies and Related Companies are currently developing a $115 million, 26-story dormitory on the Cornell Tech campus that will be the world's tallest Passive House-certified building.

Tishman Speyer's development partner Qatari Diar is also involved with the 360-room Conrad Washington hotel project in the Washington, DC, CityCenterDC mixed-use development. The luxury hotel, now being built by Turner Construction, will also feature a celebrity-chef-run restaurant as well as a Tiffany & Co. retail store.

Tishman Speyer is also a significant Manhattan developer, with two skyscrapers underway at Related Cos' massive mixed-use Hudson Yards project. One building is a 1.3-million-square-foot high-rise, and the other, The Spiral, designed by Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group, features winding, landscaped terraces working their way around the building's exterior.