Is there a better way to enjoy the New York City skyline than from its highest point, atop the swiftly rising 1 World Trade Center? How about with a Shackburger and shake in hand? Read More
As of today, as you probably already know, 1 World Trade Center reached the historic height of 1,271 feet, eclipsing the Empire State Building and reclaiming its place as the tallest building in the city. In honor of that achievement, the tower will be lit up red, white and blue tonight. The Observer asked Tony Malkin, owner of the iconic tower, what he thought of being No. 2 again. Read More
Real estate was never supposed to be a career for Gerard Schumm.
The executive vice president of RFR Realty always wanted to be a musician, a drummer to be exact. But while going to St. Francis College, he asked his father, who worked in the real estate game, to help him find a day job until the record companies came banging at his door. Read More
Garan Incorporated, an apparel company owned by Warren Buffett, has signed a 50,000-square-foot deal to relocate from the Empire State Building to 200 Madison Avenue. Read More
Earlier today, it was announced that Swedish construction giant Skanska had signed a 16,000-square-foot lease at 519 Eighth Avenue. Here’s how The Commercial Observer broke the news on Nov. 2 through various backchannels.
Much as we have been enjoying the work of Michael Kimmelman lately, no one stokes the critical fires like Ada Louise Huxtable. The grand dame of the business, Ms. Huxtable writes all too infrequently for The Journal—only six times a year, but not because that is all the paper will give here but instead it is all she will offer them.
Today Ada Louise offers an especially intriguing look at the Empire State Building and its resurrection, an assessment really only she could offer as few others have the same lens through which to view it, having seen both its grandeur and its decay. Read More
Tony Malkin may have lost his biggest fight, against Vornado’s Steve Roth and the gargantuan 15 Penn Plaza, but he’s having a good week, at least, winning two persnickety court battles. Read More
When it was announced in early 2007 that the Empire State Building would undertake an ambitious, $550 million renovation—the first of such grandeur since it was erected 76 years earlier—real estate observers stood divided on whether the effort was long overdue or, considering the looming economic crises, an unnecessarily expensive bet.
Given the 102-story tower’s 2.5 million square feet—not to mention its aging infrastructure, elevators and lobby—naysayers had reason to doubt the logic behind such a costly affair. Add to those challenges a mandate to replace the building’s jigsaw puzzle of 550 fractious users with a collection of far more prestigious, full-floor tenants and the endeavor seemed positively Sisyphean to some. Read More
Just posted to the Empire State Building’s Facebook page—yes, it has one—is a photograph of none other than Tom Cruise gracing its visage, the lesser-seen parts. Mounting the lip of the infamous, extensive mass and sporting a reluctantly exposed smile far from the reaches of Manhattan’s cosmically-lesser beings below him, Mr. Cruise lets Read More
This ran with Josh Barbanel’s Journal story this morning on how much foreign tenants love the Empire State Building, Malkin Holdings’ art deco icon off 35th Street. Read More
