Hutchinson was originally set on 18.5 acres, the center currently has 460,000 sf of class A office space. Approximately 115,000 sf of space remains available in the first building. Owner Simone Development Cos. has purchased an additional 24.5 acres on site, creating an as-of-right opportunity for an additional 640,000 sf of office space. The $60-million first phase is expected to generate between 2,500 and 3,000 new jobs for the borough.

Cushman & Wakefield brokerage professionals Tara Stacom, executive vice president, Matthew Astrachan, executive director, and Shawna Menifee, associate director, arranged the transaction. "The opportunity that the Hutchinson Metro Center presents really didn't exist in the Bronx previously," says Stacom. Asking rents in the complex are in the low $30s per sf.

NYCHA joins Mercy College, which recently opened its new 130,000-sf Bronx campus at the site and the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, which consolidated its Bronx offices to 50,000 sf. The Metro Center parcel, formerly the Bronx Psychiatric Center site, is located directly off the Hutchinson River Parkway in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx. The land was purchased in 2001 from the state through the Empire State Development Corp. by Hutch Realty Partners LLC. It is the first class A office complex to be built in the Bronx in more than a decade.