Posted May 12, 2016, 4:42 AM
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NYC/NJ/Miami-Dade
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Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Riverview Estates Fairway (PA)
Posts: 45,840
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Just a snippet from an interview:
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Commercial Observer met with Mr. Durels, a married Upper East Sider and father of a 25-year-old, in a conference room at SL Green’s offices at the Graybar Building at 420 Lexington Avenue between East 43rd and East 44th Streets. He talked about the uniqueness of the under-construction One Vanderbilt, adjusting rents and the coworking phenomenon.
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How do you feel about leasing to WeWork and other coworking tenants?
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As a market segment, we’ve shied away from leasing to shared office spaces because of the credit risk. We’re fans of WeWork. We think it’s a fascinating business. In the past, we’ve actually leased to WeWork, at 315 West 36th Street last year [which SL Green then sold]. [Under] the right circumstances, we’d certainly do business with them again. But I think the broader conversation is the shared office suites business. That’s an industry that we’ve shied away from because our experience with that industry has always been a little mixed over the years. When times are good, it’s great. When the economy’s weak, they get themselves in trouble. Our focus is credit tenants, long leases, developing at maximum value.
SL Green’s under-construction One Vanderbilt office building is slated to reach over 1,400 feet in the air, making it the second tallest commercial building in Midtown after the Empire State Building when it’s completed in 2020. Is this your biggest undertaking to date?
Yes. And it’s got such unique characteristics as to be different than any other building ever built in Manhattan.
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What makes the building unique?
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It’s a combination of its proximity to transportation, being right next to Grand Central Terminal and floor slab heights that are well in excess of any other building in the city at 14.5 to 20 feet tall. And because of the relatively low-height buildings that surround us and the combination of the very high slabs, you get these amazing views all around with 360 degrees. And it’s got an extremely robust infrastructure system to support the tenants. And it’s got architectural design that’s really very forward looking as far as at both the crown of the building and at the base of the building. It has a very, very dramatic architectural impact at the street level.
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Who is the main competition for One Vanderbilt?
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I think we’re really one of a kind, quite frankly, you know, because of the size of the floors [ranging from 22,000 square feet to 47,000 square feet], when we’re delivering the building and the uniqueness of its design. I think our added advantage is that we’re a true Midtown location and the convenience that that provides. But I think what really differentiates the building beyond that is the quality of its design, the robustness of its infrastructure and the statement that it will make on the skyline and at the streetscape. If you really study the images of the building, it’s got an amenity package for the tenants where we’ll have a 30,000-square-foot tenant-only amenity floor. That’ll be a combination of auditorium space and sort of a social lounge-type space. We’ll have a world-class restaurant at the base of the building. And then we’ll have a very unique, most likely a cocktail lounge at the top of the building, but connected by elevators to the main restaurant.
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Is a development like Hudson Yards be competition for One Vanderbilt?
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Tenants considering us will consider other marquis buildings in Midtown. I don’t think we’re competing against Downtown. I don’t think we’re competing against the West Side. We’re competing for those tenants that value a Midtown location and what that has to offer.
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You have TD Bank as a tenant in 200,000 square feet at One Vanderbilt. What sort of tenants are you courting for the building?
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Primarily, the tenants that we’ve presented to have been in financial services, a couple of law firms and a couple of very large mature technology firms. But I would say 90 percent of the prospective tenants have been financial services companies.
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What are the asking rents?
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Well, we’re not really quoting it publicly, [but] they’re going to be in line with the highest quality marquis buildings in Midtown, equivalent to 90 West 57th Street, the GM Building, the Seagram Building.
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https://commercialobserver.com/2016/...lt-and-beyond/
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that will also run the top floors of the 1,500-foot-tall skyscraper. “It is truly focused on a world-class hospitality restaurant,” says Brett Herschenfeld, managing director of SL Green Realty Corp. One Vandy’s developer.
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