Empire State Realty Trust plumbs societal moves in its deals
Empire State Realty Trust, which owns the Empire State Building and which was organized and went public in October, has ditched King Kong as an attention-getter in favor of amenity-filled class A space, including five buildings in Fairfield County. Fay Wray may have been the apple of Kong”™s eye, but today its eye-catchers like concierge services, proximity to a train and gleaming construction and landscaping that seal the deal.
The Empire State Realty Trust portfolio consists of 12 office properties and six standalone retail properties totaling some 8.4 million rentable square feet. It is classified a real estate investment trust and employs about 600 in a business plan that involves ownership, operations, even cleaning, all in-house.
In Fairfield County, the company”™s class A buildings include First Stamford Place and Metro Center by the train station/transit hub in Stamford; MerrittView on Main Avenue in Norwalk; and a string of retail buildings in Westport: 69-97 and 103-107 Main St. The company also owns a pair of office buildings in White Plains, N.Y., on Mamaroneck Avenue and Bank Street.
The company”™s seven Manhattan properties feature the marquee Empire State Building.
Business is good. “Our fourth quarter (2013) was strong, with over 415,000 square feet leased portfoliowide,” said Tom Durels, Empire State Realty Trust executive vice president.
“New York City has always been transit-oriented and that is a big part of our company”™s philosophy,” Durels said. “Transit-oriented development is in our roots; it”™s in our bones.”
That ethos plays well in Stamford, where “workers are now coming from all over. It”™s really become a 24/7, work/live city with mass transit, nightlife, restaurants,” he said. “It”™s part of a trend toward urbanization; the young want to live where they work.”
Durels foresees “continued migration” to Stamford”™s South End, where a new hospital is rising, and downtown.
Durels, a mechanical engineer from Lehigh University, joined Malkin Holdings L.L.C. in 1990, having previously worked for office/hotel company Helmsley Spear Inc. in Manhattan. Disparate Malkin entities were rolled into ESRT with the October public offering.
Durels is responsible for the company”™s property redevelopment, repositioning, leasing, management and construction. He also oversees the development of Metro Tower. Metro Tower is a 17-story planned building immediately adjacent to Metro Center; it possesses all approvals and is slated for occupancy in 2016. Looking ahead, Durels called it “the best multitenanted building in the city.”
Metro Center is billed as “the premier member of the Empire State Realty Trust suburban portfolio,” an eight-story, 279,385-rentable-square-foot, multitenanted office building at Interstate 95 exit 7, at the Stamford Transportation Center.
First Stamford Place is a three-building, 784,160-rentable-square-foot, multitenanted office complex, also at exit 7 and also adjacent to the Stamford Transportation Center. The company in April leased 10,842 square feet at 100 First Stamford Place to American Express Travel Related Services Co. Inc.
MerrittView (383 Main Avenue) is a 257,965-rentable-square-foot, multitenanted office building at the intersection of the Super 7 Expressway and the Merritt Parkway near the Norwalk/Wilton border.
The Westport properties are retail-oriented.
In Westchester, 10 Bank St. is a 228,813-rentable-square-foot, 12-story office building in downtown White Plains adjacent to the White Plains Transportation Center; and 500 Mamaroneck Ave. is a 289,772-rentable-square-foot, multitenanted office building on 35 landscaped acres in Harrison.
The company also has an option to acquire two additional Manhattan office properties totaling approximately 1.5 million rentable square feet.
Durels, who is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York, the Urban Land Institute and the Young Men”™s and Women”™s Real Estate Association, for which he once served as treasurer, keeps a weather eye on the market, which turns out to be more of a micromarket.
“Regarding the office occupancy rate ”” I pay less attention to Stamford or the county rate than to the buildings of our direct competitors and peers,” he said. “Overall occupancy rates can be misleading. The central business districts now are tight. People want convenience, mass transit, access to downtown, and I think that”™s why our properties are doing so well.”