Meridian Capital employee tests positive for coronavirus

A New York-based employee at Meridian Capital Group, one of the most active commercial real estate brokerages in the country, has tested positive for coronavirus.

“We were recently notified of a possible exposure to coronavirus (COVID-19) at Meridian’s One Battery Park Plaza office,” a spokesperson for the firm told Crain’s. “As a result, we have taken immediate steps to ensure the health and safety of all our employees, which has always been our highest priority. Our offices have been sanitized in accordance with current government standards to ensure no transmission of the virus.”

The employee works out of the firm’s headquarters at One Battery Park Plaza, a Rudin Management-owned office tower in Lower Manhattan. “The employee has not been in the building for a week,” a representative for the landlord told Crain’s. “The workspaces have been sanitized.”

Meridian’s office remains open, a spokesperson for the firm said, though any high-risk employees are urged to work remotely, “as well as any employee who wishes to pursue this arrangement.”

The company, led by Ralph Herzka, is among the leading debt-brokerage firms in the city, with over $15 billion in deals for 2017, according to an analysis by The Real Deal. It formally launched its investment-sales division in 2015, and brokered over $1 billion in sales in 2018.

There are at least 140 confirmed cases in New York of the virus, which has wreaked havoc on global markets and delivered a big blow to real estate’s hospitality and retail sectors. Many major industry conferences have been canceled or postponed, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo has declared a state of emergency in New York.

Other major firms have also been dealing with exposure to the virus. TRD reported Tuesday that three workers have tested positive at three separate SL Green Realty office towers in Midtown and Downtown. [Crain’s] —TRD Staff