A rare sight in this bleak season of office-leasing is a bargain for more space than a large area rug.
But here’s enough: Public relations firm Joel is taking 78,353 square feet at Frank Milstein’s 22 Vanderbilt, aka 335 Madison Avenue.
Joel Frank, who specializes in strategic corporate representation, will give up 50,000 square feet at 622 Third Avenue to Charles S. Cohen by the end of the year.
The new lease is for 16 years with an asking rent of $95 per square foot.
Wrapping rose-colored marble tower at Madison and East 43rd Street Years of Under-The-Radar Repositioning It was headed by Michael Milstein, son of Howard Milstein, the founder of Milstein Properties.
The quarter-billion-dollar project includes a new, public-friendly lobby with restaurant options—not “food courts”—under the overall name of Melangerie, overseen by New York chef Gracian Jordan; a richly appointed bar/lounge called Bergamo; and approximately 80,000 square feet of tenant amenities, including conference and wellness centers.
I had wonderful, hearty matzo ball soup (called “schmaltz”) and tangy soba noodle salad at the chef’s counter, the first of many eateries to open in the lobby. More are due later this year.
“Clearly there aren’t a lot of great deals out there anymore,” said Paul Amrich, leader of the CBRE team representing Milstein.
After a year-long search for a new home, he said, “the whole Joel Frank partnership fell in love with 22 Vanderbilt.”
The 27-story, 1.19 million-square-foot tower is 68% leased. It has two major accomplishments right now – 300,000 square feet in the tower and 120,000 square feet in the base.
The Milsteins demolished the former Biltmore Hotel on the site in the 1980s and built a new headquarters for Bank of America, which later moved to Van Bryant Park,
The famous Biltmore lobby clock, which stood for some years in the BofA lobby before disappearing into storage, is to be restored and installed in Bergamo.
When the bank moved, the Milsteins leased the property on a floor-by-floor basis, which also housed Giorgio Armani’s North American headquarters.
Now they’re promoting the building, which stands across the street from One Vanderbilt on SL Green, as an integral part of the rapidly revitalizing Grand Central Terminal area.
This week is a coming-out party of sorts for 22 Vanderbilts. It will host a press briefing titled “Grand Central Reimagined” on March 22 at 12:30 p.m., where speakers will include MTA President Janno Lieber and Grand Central Partnership President Fred Cerullo.
CBRE’s Amrich, Neil King, Sacha Zarba, Jeff Fischer and Meghan Allen represented Milstein. Newmark’s Andrew Sachs and Ben Shapiro replace Joel Frank.