The upcoming relocations by Time Warner and spun-off Time Inc. spell a seismic shift in Manhattan’s center of real estate gravity as much as they mark a game-changer in the magazine publishing world.
The epochal moves to new homes west and south of Midtown — Time Warner to Related Cos.’ and Oxford Properties Group’s Hudson Yards, and Time Inc.’s to Brookfield Place downtown, negotiated for both tenants by Studley Savill’s Mitchell Steir with Matt Barlow — will leave over 3 million square feet vacant at their old space.
Time Inc.’s exit from its historic home at Rockefeller Group’s 1271 Sixth Ave., aka the Time-Life Building, over the next few years will leave behind up to 1.9 million square feet.
But Rockefeller isn’t waiting until then. It has just tapped a CBRE Group as its exclusive marketing agent for the iconic, 1950s-vintage 2.1 million square-foot tower.
The CBRE team is led by Mary Ann Tighe, Howard Fiddle and John Maher, who will work with Rockefeller SVP Edward J. Guiltinan.
The tower didn’t previously have an office leasing agent because there were no offices to fill.
But Maher said Time Inc.’s net lease on “basically the entire building” expires Dec. 31, 2017. Although the publisher’s move-out schedule isn’t yet known, “We’re working on the assumption we’ll have the entire building back by then,” he said.
The skyscraper which Tighe calls a “modern masterpiece” — home to Don Draper’s fictitious ad agency in “Mad Men” — is noted for its clean, International Style and stainless steel-paneled lobby, the latter a designated city landmark.
Maher said asking rents would be determined over time, and take into account a capital improvement plan which Rockefeller Group intends to draw up for the skyscraper.
He was bullish on Sixth Avenue, where CBRE reports that first-quarter availability fell from 13.7 percent in 2013 to 11.1 percent this year. He cited recent new leases for investment firm Neuberger Berman and law firm White & Case as typifying the corridor’s strength.
Meanwhile, until Time Warner moves to Hudson Yards in early 2019, it will remain in 1.1 million square feet at Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle under a leaseback from a Related joint venture, which bought TW’s space for $1.3 billion this year.
While the city hopes to fast-track Vanderbilt Avenue rezoning, it’s worth noting how far in the future — and how vague — its intended, wider-net rezoning of the entire 73-block Midtown East area is.
We noted last week that even a plan for SL Green’s 1 Vanderbilt tower, likely to be anchored by TD Bank, might not be realized as quickly as SL Green or city Planning Commissioner Carl Weisbrod would like.
But it’s warp speed compared with the wide rezoning “proposal,” which at this point is no proposal at all, merely an intention to try to come up with one.
The most optimistic timeline calls for what Weisbrod refers to as a “framework” by next spring, and its entry into the city’s land-use review procedure by late 2015.
Weisbrod said he wants to make the eventual plan “clear, transparent, and easy to understand for both the community and developers, and to allow the public a strong degree of predictability.”
To get to that point will require “working with the community” — and finding common ground with City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viterito, Council member Dan Garodnick (who reps the district), and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who might have their own priorities.
Even the most basic parameters remain a mystery. Is it possible that an overall rezoning scheme will include a “sunrise” provision as former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s aborted proposal did, which forbade construction under the new rules for five years? Not likely, but no one knows for sure.
Would the Vanderbilt Avenue rezoning, if adopted, be the model for wider rezoning? It “might be a template, it might not,” Weisbrod said.
Add Georgian to the myriad cuisines of the West Village. Old Tbilisi, named for the Georgian capital, will open shortly at 174 Bleecker St., with 65 seats plus 10 in a backyard garden.
Vasil Chkheidze, one of the owners, said the asking rent for the 1,800 square-foot space was $25,000 a month. His partner Pikria Basaria was previously the chef at Tbilisi on Kings Highway in Brooklyn.
Chkheidze said the eatery will have an “authentic Georgian” menu.