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April 6, 2011
| Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg joined WilmerHale co-managing partner Bill Perlstein and WTC developer Larry Silverstein on the 48th floor of 7 World Trade Center for a 210k SF lease signing that will—for the first time in recent memory—relocate a major law firm from Midtown to an increasingly revitalized Downtown. |
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| Hizzoner (with Larry and REBNY prez Steven Spinola) says that WilmerHale’s lease is the first to incorporate groundbreaking language designed to promote energy efficiency and sustainability in commercial buildings in the City. The split-incentive problem: under traditional leases, tenants and owners don't share equally in cost of energy efficiency improvements and so have little incentive to invest in them. By bringing together gurus in real estate, energy efficiency, and lawyer Mark Rauch (currently in Egypt with his wife, who is the president of the American University of Cairo), the Mayor’s Office was able to draft the provision in a way that incentivizes the landlord to make improvements. Panelists expect the pioneeringnew model to create a win-win-win-win for owners, tenants, the City, and the environment, while helping the Mayor’s PlaNYC goal of reducing citywide greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030. |
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| Legal Bisnow snapped Bill alongside Tishman Construction CEO and chairman of the National Resources Defense Council Dan Tishman, and Steven moments before the lease signing. Bill will be bringing his bankruptcy and restructuring talents to the Big Apple in ’12, strengthening the group led by Andy Goldman and Phil Anker. He tells us the firm is dedicated to growing its 160-attorney NYC office, and he expects to fill up the five floors of state-of-the-art space. Bill'sgrandfather came through Ellis Island in 1906 and foundedPerlstein Leather Co, a shoe leather supply business at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. Having once worked alongside both his grandfather and his father, Bill tells us the new lease and forthcoming relocation feels like he’s coming home. |
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| Joe Vericker/PhotoBureau |
| Mayor Mike sure gets around; the day before, he was in the Bronx, where Chase donated an $850k, 5,200 SF former Washington Mutual branch at 2700 E Tremont Ave to the Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA), giving residents a new arts and cultural center in Westchester Square. Renovations on the building—which is nearlydouble the size of the organization’s current space on Hone Ave— will be completed next year. Above, he joins NYC Small Business Services commissioner Rob Walsh, NYC council member James Vacca, Congressman Joe Crowley, BCA exec director Deirdre Scott, Chase EVP Charles Scharf, and BCA chair Charles Rice Gonzalez. |
