The former artistic director of the Bush theatre and the Southbank Centre, Madani Younis, is moving to New York to become the chief executive producer of the Shed, the multimillion-dollar arts institution on Manhattan’s midwest side.

Younis, who described the new role as a “perfect marriage”, will work alongside Alex Poots, the Shed’s chief executive and artistic director, to develop co-commissions and commercial partnerships.

“They’re right at the beginning of their story and are finding their feet in a city like New York,” Younis said. “But I think Alex [Poots] has decided this building will have new commissions and for 17 years I’ve worked toward making new work, so doing it at this level is the perfect marriage.”

The move means two British creatives will be guiding the institution. Poots is a former artistic director of Manchester International Festival. Younis said the Shed’s position adjacent to the Hudson Yards, a controversial $25bn (£19bn) development of luxury flats and shops, made for a unique challenge and required a new vision of what an arts institution could be.

“We are neighbours and supported by generous individuals, and all of this makes for an interesting conversation around culture,” he said. “In east London we will see it when the Smithsonian and the V&A East open up on a new site. What’s going on with the Shed is the start of something different.”

Younis unexpectedly resigned from his position at the Southbank in October. In 2012 he became one of the first artistic directors of colour in the UK when he took over the Bush theatre.

One of his big successes at the Bush, Arinzé Kene’s Misty, which transferred to the West End, will have a four-week run at the Shed, and Younis said the chance to make original work like that was behind his decision to swap his current home in Bradford, where he developed the award-winning Freedom Studios, for New York.

Other work in the Shed’s 2020 programme includes Help, a new theatre piece by the poet and author Claudia Rankine; Misty, which will run from 24 September to 24 October; and a new work by the Argentinian artist Tomás Saraceno called Particular Matter(s).

Poots said: “At the start of this new decade, in such a significant year for this country, we are producing and premiering a number of pioneering artists’ works that confront the urgent matters of our time – artists whose practice speak to justice, empathy and the environment and look to the future.”

Younis said his biggest challenge would be delivering on the potential of the team, which includes Hans Ulrich Obrist as senior programme adviser, Tamara McCaw as chief civic programme officer, and Emma Enderby as senior curator. He compared the Shed team to “a top-tier European football team” and said he was looking forward to joining an organisation “that has art at its centre, is willing to take risks – and it wants to do that in a high-profile, celebratory way.”

The Guardian said the Shed resembled “a quilted Chanel handbag” when it opened in April. The development, New York’s first new public arts space in decades, cost $500m to build.

Younis said his appointment proved that working-class talent could get to senior positions in the world of culture. “As a young, working-class child of immigrants we search for our heroes in literature, comic books, and film,” he said. “Sometimes a move like this is a moment that we all celebrate. It shows this stuff is possible. It tells a really beautiful story about where we are. I hope it signals a change.”