| NYguy |
Aug 31, 2024 2:32 PM |
https://www.costar.com/article/18278...efit-landlords
New York Wants To Freshen Up Park Avenue. Here’s How That Could Benefit Landlords.
City’s Plan Comes As Owners Nationwide Bet Office Tenants Prize Outdoor Space
By Andria Cheng
August 30, 2024
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Timeka Jones, a native New Yorker who works between Park and Lexington avenues, likes to go out at lunch to get fresh air and clear her head, and she is far from the only office worker in the neighborhood with the same idea.
“I see a lot of people out here for lunch, but there's no real place for us to go sit," Jones said in an interview as she sat near a fountain outside the Seagram Building at 375 Park Ave., two blocks south of her workplace. "Everybody comes out at the same time. … Everywhere is crowded."
She and other office workers may get some relief soon. New York wants to give a major makeover to Park Avenue, a street that's famous for its who's who list of corporate headquarters in the largest U.S. office cluster. The move comes as the city seeks to revitalize its office-dependent areas and other commercial business districts to make them more friendly as a live, work and play domain.
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New York Mayor Eric Adams' office and the city’s Department of Transportation are moving ahead with the Park Avenue project by searching for a contractor with a background in landscape architecture or urban design to help expand and fill in the median between East 46th Street and East 57th Street. The city didn't give details on how car traffic will be affected or immediately respond to a CoStar News request seeking details. But according to the Department of Transportation website, the plan could involve removing one vehicle lane in each direction of Park Avenue for the wider median.
The vision involves adding greenery, public seating, concessions, cycling infrastructure and “innovative streetscape amenities,” the city said. While there are different courtyards and some public spaces on side streets or a block or two away, on the main stretch of Park Avenue itself, there are few public seating areas, with the Seagram Building’s fountain area being one of the exceptions.
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Adding an amenity such as an outdoor park could pay dividends for the prime office corridor.
Park Avenue is home to major global corporations including Blackstone, the major private equity firm that's expanding its footprint at its longtime home at 345 Park, and JPMorgan Chase, the banking giant that's building its new headquarters tower at 270 Park. Billionaire investor Ken Griffin, founder of hedge fund Citadel, is moving forward with a plan to build a 1.8 million-square-foot office tower at 350 Park after Citadel is already the anchor tenant at 425 Park, the first full-block office tower to open on Park Avenue in a half-century.
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Naysayers have been proved wrong about leasing activity along Park Avenue, a stretch that was hard hit during the pandemic because of its predominantly office-centric nature. The market has shown solid demand despite what’s often pitched as the live-work-play appeal of rival neighborhoods such as Midtown South, Lower Manhattan and Hudson Yards.
For instance, SL Green Realty, Manhattan's largest office landlord, has noted higher rental rates and lower office availability on Park Avenue, with Chief Executive Marc Holliday recently saying tight supply has sent office tenants "radiating outwards" through East Midtown.
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The city's plan to put the park back in Park Avenue arrives as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is overhauling and repairing the Grand Central Terminal train shed that sits below the street. The work will involve removing and reconstructing portions of Park Avenue in stages.
“As the MTA works underground to shore up our train infrastructure, we are taking this unique moment to make the vital artery, Park Avenue, a destination,” Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi said in a statement. “Lighting, furniture, and concessions will create more of the vibrant space.”
Nearly a century ago, pedestrians once strolled down Park Avenue when the median separating vehicle traffic was wider. It functioned as a public space before being narrowed in 1927 to accommodate more traffic lanes, according to a Department of Transportation study.
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