The sky’s the limit: Oxford Properties breaks ground at 70 Hudson Yards
July 21, 2025
In June, Oxford Properties Group and Related Companies officially broke ground on 70 Hudson Yards, raising the bar (and the skyline) with the first one-million-plus square foot ground-up office development in New York City in over five years.
For Oxford, the global real estate arm of OMERS, it’s the start of a new chapter in a 15-year-old story that’s already been reshaping Manhattan’s skyline—one storey at a time.
But 70 Hudson Yards isn’t just another tower. It’s the next step in a vision that formed in 2010, when Oxford joined forces with Related to reimagine what was then the largest undeveloped parcel in Manhattan, a rail yard stretching from 30th to 34th Streets, between 10th and 12th Avenues.
At the time, the site had long been seen as a missed opportunity. In fact, in 1995, then–New York City finance commissioner Joe Lhota described the area as “lost economic potential.”
What’s followed has been nothing short of transformative: a once-overlooked stretch of steel and track has been reimagined as one of the largest private mixed-use developments in U.S. history.
Across the neighbourhood’s 28 acres, at full build-out, Hudson Yards is slated to deliver:
18 million square feet of commercial and residential space
4,000 apartments
100+ shops and restaurants
Five office towers
A public school
14 acres of green space
Landmark destinations, including The Edge (the highest outdoor sky deck in the Western Hemisphere)
When complete, it’s expected to welcome 125,000 people daily and contribute nearly $19 billion annually to New York City’s GDP, redefining what’s possible in real estate by blending innovation, sustainability and community into transformative space. It’s the new blueprint for 21st-century workplaces.
For OMERS, it’s also a reflection of our long-term investment strategy to build lasting value for generations of members to come.
With 70 Hudson Yards, Oxford is once again proving that when vision meets conviction, the sky isn’t the limit; it’s actually just the beginning.