Spectre0000 
By KEIKO MORRIS
June 8, 2015 9:12 p.m. ET
Law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP has signed on as the first tenant of an office building under construction in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, joining a list of companies heading to the emerging West Side neighborhood.
Boies Schiller, known for its litigation practice, plans to take 83,000 square feet at 55 Hudson Yards, a roughly $1.4 billion building being developed by a joint venture of Related Cos., Mitsui Fudosan America Inc. and Oxford Properties Group.
The firm’s space will span three floors of the 51-story tower. It now has 94,000 square feet at 575 Lexington Ave.
Two other office buildings are going up as part of the commercial and residential project that Related and Oxford are financing. One of the skyscrapers, 10 Hudson Yards, will be the new home of Coach Inc. and L’Oréal SA; the other, 30 Hudson Yards, will house the headquarters of Time Warner Inc.
“We have tremendous momentum at the moment, and we have a lot of deals cooking at various stages,” said L. Jay Cross, president of Related Hudson Yards. “Announcing Boies, Schiller will hopefully accelerate those decisions.”
The 1.3-million-square-foot building at 55 Hudson Yards—which the developers started before signing any tenants—will open onto a new park and subway station for the 7 train, being extended west and south from the Times Square/42nd Street stop.
Nearby will be the new Hudson Boulevard, which some of Related’s executives are billing as the “new Park Avenue of the West Side.” The thoroughfare will extend north and south between 10th and 11th avenues, along either side of a swath of open space that will stretch between West 33rd and West 39th streets.
For Boies Schiller, 55 Hudson presented the opportunity to have modern, efficient office space uninterrupted by columns and with floor-to-ceiling windows, creating an environment with lots of natural light, said Jonathan Schiller, the firm’s co-founder and managing partner. Its proximity to the West Side Highway will provide the firm’s employees easy access to the courts and to the firm’s downtown clients.
“For the firm, it’s really continuing our model of being innovative and looking for spaces where we can have good design, comfortable and interesting workspaces and meeting spaces,” Mr. Schiller said.
Another high-profile law firm has decided to move to the Hudson Yards neighborhood. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP has signed a lease for 550,000 square feet in the tower that Brookfield Property Partners plans to develop west of Pennsylvania Station. Skadden Arps is now in Times Square.
The design of 55 Hudson Yards, which is expected to open in 2018, is intended to appeal to service-type tenants, including law firms, that are looking for smaller floor sizes than those at 10 and 30 Hudson Yards, Mr. Cross said.
Law firms are facing pressure to “think about real-estate costs and get more efficient very quickly,” he said. “We anticipate that there is going to be a fair bit of law-firm movement in the next few years as they retool themselves for a new marketplace.”
Boies Schiller prides itself on creating contemporary and attractive environments, Mr. Schiller said. At its office on Lexington Avenue, the firm has a small art gallery in a two-story central atrium, displaying art works that include sculptures. The firm intends to create a similar space for art at 55 Hudson Yards, Mr. Schiller said.
The firm is also considering adding music in the form of a Steinway baby grand player piano in an open space, filling the office with the soft strains of classical music during the day and more contemporary sounds, such as Billy Joel, later in the afternoon and evening, Mr. Schiller said. “We want our lawyers excited by the space and feeling as if we are in a sanctuary,” he said.
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