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March 16, 2009
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HOT SPECIALTY BUILDINGS;
INT'L ARCHITECTS
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Specialty buildings are making the "must-have" list these days. We've been watching a slew of deals crop up in the Fashion District, so we met with some of the submarket's top brokers—The Kaufman Org.'s Michael Heaner and Adams & Co.'s David Levy and Brett Maslin—to find out more.
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Mike, with Quinn & Co.'s Kanessa Tixe, brought us to the epicenter, W. 39th and 7th, home to many industry powerhouses. On one corner: the 1.2M-SF 1407 Broadway (also known as 533 Seventh), which Kaufman is turning into a multi-niche "one-stop fashion shop" as leases turn over. Geneva Watch Co. recently took 33k SF of showroom and office space as part of the accessories niche.
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Mike with 1407 tenant Nelly Castaneda. Another building he markets, 260 W. 39th, houses Phillip Lim, Tracy Reese, and Vivienne Tam, among other contemporary designers. Some fashion companies have been moving back from the Meatpacking District, Chelsea and SoHo because of the guaranteed traffic, he says. Similar companies tend to stick together; this creates a "market within a market"—an insurance policy in tough economic times.
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Next, Brett and David took us over to 34 W. 33rd, which Adams & Co. is turning into a children's wear center (here, they pose with tenant Lisa Lombardi of CK Industries). This is one of the 16 specialty buildings Adams represents, including accessories-heavy 10 W. 33rd down the street. The landlord's benefit? While many multi-tenanted buildings experience highs and lows, specialties remain steady and don't experience major rent swings, David says.
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Brett demonstrates the building's computerized directory, which you search by name or specialty. Many of these buildings are oddly-shaped (34 W. 33rd is like an hourglass), which makes them inefficient for the large office tenant—but perfect for showrooms ranging from 500 to 10k SF. The Rose Garden recently inked a 7-year, 1,775-SF lease; David says to watch for a new tenant soon.
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| IA INTER(IOR)NATIONAL ARCHITECTS |
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We dropped by IA Interior Architects' Park Avenue South office to catch up with principal Julio Braga (center), here with colleagues Tamar Bradley, John Azinaro, Ali Ucer, and Sophia Yun. He tells us that its most recent project, the 300k-SF Tsvetnoy Center in Moscow, got underway four weeks ago. The team changed the circulatory system design from a department store to an eight-level interior for middle retail brands, and the project will be completed by April '10. Julio says retail's a nice change of pace; they usually specialize in office interiors.
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Julio with Susan Leone, Chris Martorana, Mindy Williams, and Sofia Galadza. IA's New York office also worked on Bancolombia's new 1.2M-SF HQ in Medellín Colombia, which should finish by summer. The project consolidated 15 offices around the city into one, Julio says, and is a long, narrow building containing three cores. Our favorite feature? The rooftop deck, which allows employees to enjoy the country's beautiful weather. In Julio's free time, he and wife Patricia Oris design houses for friends; he's currently working on ones in Massachusetts and Argentina.
We consider ourselves the People magazine for the business set. Send story ideas, juicy (but nice) gossip and paparazzo requests to Amanda@bisnow.com
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