Revamped 1700 Broadway Experiences 41,400 Square Feet of Office Leasing Momentum

February 15, 2022 12:30 PM

Newmark announces 41,400 square feet of office leasing at the recently revamped 1700 Broadway in Manhattan. The 627,747 square-foot, Class A asset was acquired by Rockpoint in 2018 and is managed by Rockpoint affiliate Rockhill Management, L.L.C. Rockhill has completed a comprehensive capital improvement program, featuring a best-in-class prebuild program, an award-winning tenant amenity space, and a recently completed lobby renovation, which has driven significant leasing activity at the property over the last two years. Newmark’s President of Tri-State, David Falk, Executive Vice Chairmen Brian Waterman and Peter Shimkin and Executive Managing Director Daniel Levine, represented ownership on the office lease transactions.

The lease transactions comprise five separate office tenants. An Asian-focused investment firm signed a lease for 13,500 square feet on the entire 39th floor, and a New York City-based hedge fund signed for 8,000 square feet of space on the asset’s 42nd floor. Alton Aviation Consultancy, a boutique aviation consulting firm, signed for 4,900 square feet of space on the 22nd floor. M3 Partners, LP, a corporate advisory firm, took the entire 19th floor, spanning 13,000 square feet of space. MiMO Studios extended for 2,000 square feet of space on the 21st floor. In addition to the latest office tenants, Mezeh Mediterranean Grill signed a lease in the 1,400-square-foot, ground-floor retail space, with Cushman & Wakefield’s Steven Soutendijk, Kenji Ota, and Neil Seth representing Rockpoint.

“The transformation of 1700 Broadway, featuring a beautiful new lobby designed by Gensler and a fantastic amenity space, makes it a terrific choice for tenants seeking great floor plates and an abundance of natural light,” said Shimkin. “The improvements to the property have been a great success as leasing momentum continues.”

1700 Broadway is a classic Midtown Manhattan property that has undergone a multimillion-dollar modernization catering to progressive tenants, including tech, financial services, and legal users. Rockpoint hired architecture firms Fogarty Finger and BR Design Associates to reimagine the asset’s prebuild program to highlight Central Park and Hudson River views, generous slab-to-slab ceiling heights, and high-end reception and pantry areas. The revamped property offers multiple state-of-the-art prebuilt spaces for potential tenants, including units on floors 22, 31, 34, and 40. The property also features a Fogarty Finger-designed private amenity space for tenants named the 1700 Broadway Club. The 10,000 square foot club features a bar with a liquor license, quiet workstations, meeting rooms and event spaces and a 2,200-square-foot rooftop terrace on the 12th floor of the building. The lobby renovation, completed in December 2021 and led by Gensler, includes a modernized entry portal, terrazzo flooring, restored travertine walls, a new destination dispatch elevator system, and artwork by Robert Swain and Linling Lu.

According to Newmark Research, office availability and asking rents have improved across most Midtown submarkets in Q3 2021. The Midtown availability rate fell 30 basis points from last quarter, and leasing activity totaled 4.8 million square feet, reflecting the highest quarterly velocity since the first quarter of 2020.

1700 Broadway features a diversified tenant base, including Gensler, CBS, the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, Chaffetz Lindsey, LS Power, and Excel Sports Management. The property is located within three blocks of seven subway lines, offering easy access to all transit hubs, a full-service, 24-hour below-grade parking garage, convenient on-site retail options including Shake Shack, Starbucks and Pret a Manger, a landscaped plaza and open-air seating. It is also centrally located to luxury residential developments, world-class retailers and entertainment venues.

About Newmark
Newmark Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: NMRK), together with its subsidiaries (“Newmark”), is a world leader in commercial real estate, seamlessly powering every phase of the property life cycle. Newmark’s comprehensive suite of services and products is uniquely tailored to each client, from owners to occupiers, investors to founders, and startups to blue-chip companies. Combining the platform’s global reach with market intelligence in both established and emerging property markets, Newmark provides superior service to clients across the industry spectrum. Newmark generated revenues in excess of $2.9 billion for the year ending December 31, 2021. Newmark’s company-owned offices, together with its business partners, operate from approximately 160 offices with over 6,200 professionals around the world. To learn more, visit nmrk.com or follow @newmark.

About Rockpoint
Rockpoint Group, LLC (“Rockpoint”) is a real estate private equity firm headquartered in Boston with additional domestic offices in San Francisco and Dallas. Rockpoint employs a fundamental value approach to investing and targets select product types located in major markets in the United States. Rockpoint utilizes a consistent strategy across distinct return profiles through its opportunistic and growth and income investment programs. Rockpoint targets assets with intrinsic long-term value, at attractive prices relative to replacement cost and stabilized cash flows, and with particular emphasis on value creation opportunities and complex situations. Since 1994, Rockpoint’s co-founders with others have sponsored 16 commingled funds and related co-investment vehicles through Rockpoint and a predecessor firm and have raised approximately $26 billion in capital commitments. As of September 30, 2021, Rockpoint’s investment team with others has invested or committed to invest in 460 transactions with a total peak capitalization of approximately $69 billion (inclusive of fund equity, co-investor equity and debt). To learn more about Rockpoint, visit www.rockpoint.com.

About Rockhill
Rockhill Management, LLC (“Rockhill”), an affiliate of Rockpoint, is a dedicated property services management company that serves commercial and residential properties in gateway cities throughout the United States. With its focus on personalized service, premium amenities, environmental sustainability, and proactive relationship management, Rockhill employs the latest technologies and a concierge-like approach to property management in order to foster an elevated tenant experience across approximately 21.2 million square feet of real estate in the Greater Boston, New York, San Francisco Bay, South Florida, Southern California, and Washington, DC metropolitan areas. To learn more about Rockhill, visit www.rockhillmanagement.com.

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