By early 1924, Hearst had obtained an option to acquire a 200-by-200-foot site along Eighth Avenue from 56th to 57th Street, close to the 57th Street art hub. That April, he acquired the property title to the site. Hearst gradually acquired large amounts of land around the intersection of Eighth Avenue and 57th Street, though none of the other sites were developed. Simultaneously with Hearst's purchases, Metropolitan Opera director Otto Hermann Kahn had started planning a new opera house to replace an existing building at 39th Street and Broadway, spending $3 million in late 1925 to acquire the site immediately west of Hearst's lot. Plans for the 57th Street opera house were made public in January 1926. but the Met abandoned these plans two years later.