The massive Hudson Yards opens for business today, with more than 100 shops and 25 restaurants, and many are offering opening day and weekend special promotions.
Hudson Yards is the largest privately built real estate project in US history, larger even than Rockefeller Center, and will change the West Side forever, just as Rockefeller Center changed Midtown forever.
Here’s the deal on the shops and restaurants, not the details of $16 billion of construction now open and another $12 Billion still in the works.
Getting there: It’s easy.
Just take the #7 IRT to the Hudson Yards stop, the last stop in Manhattan.
Retail Shops at Hudson Yards
This is the new destination shopping spot, with stores ranging from popular-priced H&M and Uniqlo to the the city’s first Neiman Marcus.
There’s even outposts of the tony Van Cleef & Arpels and Tiffany & Co., for eye-popping jewelry, and Patek Philippe, for eye-popping wristwatches.
There are Body Shop and Sephora as well as Rolex and Stuart Weitzman, Athleta and Lululemon, and a lot more.
The Neiman Marcus store spans through three floors, with lots of glass for an open, airy feeling.
It’s also dotted with unique pieces of art by Roy Lichtenstein, Roxanne Lowit and original sketches by iconic fashion designer Halston.
And a large mobile by Alexander Calder, titled “Mariposa,” has been imported from the chain’s Michigan Avenue store in Chicago.
See the full list of Hudson Yards retail shops here.
Click here for opening weekend discounts at Uniqlo
“I’ve worked with a lot of retailers in the city, but never in a space of this size and scope,” says Mary McGreevy, vice president and general manager of Neiman Marcus, which spans floors five through seven of the mall. “It’s so different. There aren’t many walls. The dressing rooms are so generous. The aisles are wide. You don’t feel you are in Manhattan when you are in the store.”
To create what a department store spokesperson calls a “feeling of ease and openness,” the chain worked with architect Janson Goldstein. The firm created a massive open-escalator well, connecting the 8,000-square-foot shoe department on the fifth floor to women’s contemporary fashion on the sixth.
Eating and Drinking at Hudson Yards
Dining choices range from Shake Shack to the pricey, fish-by-the-pound Milos.
There’s also an outpost of Bouchon Bakery and Mayson Kayser, for coffee, pastries and gourmet sandwiches.
London-based hospitality giant rhubarb (with a lower-case ‘r’), which operates a restaurant at the Royal Albert Hall, has a 5,800-square-foot restaurant on the fifth level of the Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards mall.
There also are restaurants by star chefs Thomas Keller, José Andrés, David Chang, Michael Lomonaco, and Costas Spiliadis.
According to the NY Post, rhubarb also plans an ambitious space at the 1,296-foot-tall 30 Hudson Yards, future home to Time Warner, Wells Fargo Securities and KKR.
That will be on the 92nd floor, one story above a 5,000-square-foot observation deck, which will be the city’s highest outdoor viewing platform.d the World Trade Center mall combined.
See the full list of where to eat and drink at Hudson Yards here.
Hudson Yards Observation Deck
It’s the highest outdoor deck in the Western Hemisphere.
It’s open air, which makes it the highest public balcony in New York City.
It sticks 65 feet straight out over the city, and has a huge glass floor to look straight down at the bustling neighborhood 1,100 feet below.
It’s not open yet, but you can make reservations now.
It doesn’t seem like you can reserve for the Hudson Yards Observation Deck.
The reservation system for The Vessel has been completely overwhelmed and isn’t working, and it looks like the same issue for the Observation Deck. The only advice is to keep trying.