News Corp Joins Related in Hudson Yards Bid

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has joined Stephen Ross's Related Companies in its bid for the Hudson Yards project, a source familiar with the bid said.

If Stephen Ross' Related won the bid to develop on the far West Side, News Corp. would move its headquarters from its Sixth Avenue tower and into a new tower in Hudson Yards, the source said. Last week, The Observer reported that Conde Nast would leave 4 Times Square for a new, 1.5-million-square-foot tower if Douglas Durst and Vornado won a bid; and it was also reported that Morgan Stanley had teamed up with Tishman Speyer.

The source said that it could take months to select a winner for Hudson Yards, but that the MTA considered Related, Vornado-Durst and Tishman Speyer the frontrunners. The source said that Brookfield Properties' bid was also being taken seriously, even though it goes without a major tenant, and that Gary Barnett's Extell Development had, at first look, the least formidable bid. All the developers' bids were given to the MTA last Thursday.

The Times reported Saturday that Related had teamed up with Goldman Sachs in its bid and had selected three major architects--Kohn Pedersen Fox, Arquitectonica and Robert A. M. Stern--to design its towers.

The possibility that News Corp., which controls the naming rights to its tower at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, would relocate all but assures that the city will have a high-wattage tenant in the West 30s, near 11th Avenue by 2015.

A spokesman for News Corp. would not comment.