News
ONE GRAND CENTRAL; PERKINS+WILL EXPANDS
July 7, 2009
| The renaming of the Lincoln Building to One Grand Central Place is not a snub to Honest Abe; the site was formerly home to LincolnMoving & Storage, according to Newmark Knight Frank’s Billy Cohen and Alison Coffey, who showed us W&H Properties' 1.3M-SF pre-War trophy. |
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| “It’s as grand and as central as it gets,” Billy notes, pointing out its proximity to almost every subway line in Manhattan and Grand Central Terminal. Billy, Alison, and colleague Ryan Kass, took over leasing December 1. The building has since undergone $85M in renovations, including a new visitors’ center to get rid of a clog at the E. 42nd Street entrance, new elevators, and lobby and common area upgrades. Under same ownership since the ‘50s, the building has a low debt load that allowed the project to commence. |
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| Contrary to the trend in some other trophies, the building has also seen 100k SF of new leases YTD, and is trading paper on an additional 200k SF. Billy and Alison show off some available space, which includes Harry Helmsley’s old office. (Seem kind of low-key for a Helmsley? Billy explains that his and Leona’s main digs were at 230 Park and this office was “for show.”). The ownership is condensing smaller-tenanted space into larger floorplates, including a number of pre-builts. |
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| They then took us to the grandest floor of all, the 55th, which features a 35-foot ceiling, uncovered after six other ceilings were removed. If you’re looking for this kind of feature, you’re out of luck—they just leased the 10k-SF space to an undisclosed tenant. (Undisclosed? Or just hiding under another ceiling?) But there are 1k to 47k-SF availabilities elsewhere, and pre-builts get upscale dark wood molding, glass office sidelights, green carpets, and thermostatic zones. You can also design your own, as new tenant Gibbs & Soell Public Relations did with its 13k-SF space on the 11th floor. |
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| The lucky tenant on 55th also gets an outside terrace, with unobstructed views of Manhattan. How many times do you get to see the MetLife and Chrysler buildings from this angle? Fun fact: the building is a real life yo mamma joke: It’s so big, it’s got its own ZIP Code; plus, tenants have three addresses to choose from: One Grand Central Place, 301 Madison, or 60 E. 42nd St. |
