With two weeks left to avert a strike, 32BJ, the service employees union which represents office maintenance workers in many New York City commercial buildings, plans to march down Sixth Avenue at rush hour tomorrow, according to spokespeople for the union.
The office cleaners’ group expects between 5,000 and 6,000 people to march up Sixth Avenue from 41st Street to 48th Street in solidarity with workers, union spokesperson Matt Nerzig told The Real Deal.
– Guelda Voien [more]
Local 32BJ, the union representing more than 22,000 commercial
building workers in New York City, voted Thursday to authorize their
bargaining committee to call a strike if necessary, the union said in
a statement.
The union has been in contract talks with the Realty Advisory Board on
Labor Relations, an industry association representing most building
owners, since November 15th. The union opposes the
landlords’ proposal to establish a different wage and benefit
structure for new hires, which they claim will create a two-tier
system designed to push out workers with seniority.
If negotiations fail by 12:01 am on Jan. 1, 2012, the union could
strike at such high-profile buildings as Rockefeller Center, the Met
Life Building and the Empire State Building. Workers’ contracts expire
on Dec. 31, 2011, according to today’s announcement. – Guelda Voien [more]
An apparel company owned by billionaire Warren Buffett has inked a 50,000-square-foot, 10-year lease for offices at 200 Madison Avenue, the New York Observer reported, relocating from the Empire State Building.
Garan Incorporated will occupy the 575,000-square-foot building’s fourth floor for rents that average around the mid-$40s per square foot. The company previously squeezed into a 40,000-square-foot space at the Empire State Building and was eager to expand to a building that could accommodate all its staff on one floor.
Jim Saunders Noel Flag of Newmark Knight Frank represented Garan in the transaction. [more]
Malkin Holdings, operator of the Empire State Building, said it “embarked on a course of action” to become a real estate investment trust, in a regulatory filing today, Bloomberg reported. Documents could be filed with the SEC to make the 2.9 million-square-foot tower a publicly traded entity as soon as February. As The Real Deal previously reported, the Malkins had been considering this move since at least April. The landmarked tower, which has undergone a $550 million capital improvements program in recent years, would present a lucrative opportunity for investors, as prices for trophy towers rise as the recession fades. Comments
Amidst many obstacles, bike storage rooms are becoming more popular in New York City offices, according to the New York Times.
Office buildings including the Empire State Building, 520 Eighth Avenue, 345 Hudson Street, 1330 Sixth Avenue and 340 Madison Avenue have several hundred square feet of space for biking. RXR Realty, which owns the latter two properties, even has 1,800 square feet in its recently acquired Starrett-Lehigh building at 601 West 26th Street dedicated to bike storage for the 150 tenants that commute to work on two wheels each day. [more]
Falling debris is the biggest risk factor for glass in buildings in the event of a hurricane in New York City this weekend, according to real estate experts. While last night’s radar prediction for Hurricane Irene from the New York Times indicates that the city may not be hit full-force with a hurricane, but rather with a tropical storm, the danger from falling debris and glass is still a cause for concern.
At a press conference yesterday afternoon, Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned New Yorkers to avoid glass windows. “There’s always a risk of flying debris shattering windows, and that risk increases if you’re in a high-rise, on the 10th floor or higher,” he said. [more]
Walgreens has swapped its 10,000 square-foot store on the ground-floor concourse of the Empire State Building for the same amount of space on the second floor, the New York Post reported. The new space will have a dedicated entrance for visitors to the building’s observatory, who can pop in on their way back to street level.
Malkin Holdings, which has been attempting to bring New York’s most iconic tower back to its glory days since 2006, will convert the former former drugstore space into a fitness center exclusively for building tenants.
“I talked to Walgreens over 18 months ago. I told them, ‘There’s a vacant Chase bank branch right above you, and 4 million people a year from the observatory walk right by it,” said President Anthony Malkin. [more]
Anthony Malkin, president of Malkin Holdings, said that he learned in the recent process of retrofitting his company’s Empire State Building that it’s not about the greening.
“I think we learned that in the end it’s not about the greening but about money and about returns,” Malkin said at last night’s YJP Real Estate Investment Summit 2011 (see photos above). “If you put a green waterfall in your lobby it’s not going to change the world but if you can provide a greater than 40 percent reduction in the use of energy and save your tenants money by being efficient that makes a difference.” — Marc Becker [more]
The Malkin family is feuding again over a piece of the Empire State Building, this time with Skyride Associates, which runs the 16-year-old helicopter tour simulation ride on the second floor. According to the New York Times, the unlicensed street vendors who sell and promote the Kevin Bacon-narrated attraction have been the target of a recent police crackdown outside the building, having been issued 14 summonses and hit with six arrests since April, and Skyride believes the Malkins are the cause. On Monday, Skyride, which emerged from bankruptcy in February and pays more than $3.5 million annually in rent, filed a petition in State Supreme Court in Manhattan to stop the crackdown, as it says its vendors have never before needed licenses to sell tickets. Yesterday, a judge granted the company a temporary restraining order. Walter Threadgill, Skyride’s majority partner, told the Times that he thinks the Malkins are trying to oust the 15-minute attraction because it doesn’t fit with their recent efforts to revamp and rebrand the building with more upscale tenants. (The Real Deal chronicled the Malkins’ attempts to transform the building in the April issue.) [more]
International beauty and fragrance giant Coty has leased an additional 101,736 square feet at the Empire State Building in order to consolidate its American headquarters, Tony Malkin, president of Malkin Holdings, owner and asset manager of the property, announced today.
The company, which represents brands such as Calvin Klein, Karl Lagerfeld and Kenneth Cole, currently occupies 86,000 square feet on the entire 14th floor of the iconic property, and most of the 15th floor. It will expand to also occupy the entire 16th and 17th floors in April 2012, when it relocates from its other spaces at One and Two Park Avenue, between 32nd and 33rd streets.
The asking rent was $49 per square foot, landlord W & H Properties told The Real Deal. TRD [more]
