Lefrak announces Newport spec office

Real Estate Weekly, Dec 27, 2000

Continued demand for office space at prime locations and at reasonable rents has led The Lefrak Organization to announce plans for a new spec office tower to be built at Newport - the 600-acre $1 0-billion multi-use community on the Hudson River waterfront in Jersey City, New Jersey. Construction for the 1.1-million square foot, 32-story building is slated to begin in January 2001.

Located at 480 Washington St., Newport Office Center (NOC VII) will complete the first phase of office development at the community with five million square feet of Class "A" office space. NOC VII. is the fifth office tower in the past three years that the Lefrak Organization has built without having a. tenant before construction began. In the past 24 months, more than 3-million square feet have been leased at Newport development -- making it the most sought after corporate location in the New York/New Jersey region.

"Building on 'spec' takes confidence based on Newport's extraordinary success so far," said Richard LeFrak, president of the Lefrak Organization, developers of Newport. "Newport's six class 'A' office buildings are completely leased with an array of blue-chip financial companies. We believe that NOC VII also will be fully leased before completion."

Designed by the architectural firm of Kahn Pedersen Fox. Associates, the building's glass curtain wall will reflect the sky and the Hudson River, with the southeast corner projecting like a spinnaker from a sailboat to help establish the nautical theme of the building. The "sail" will be bathed in a soft glowing light while the corner will be sharply delineated by a bar of light, extending upwards like a 32-story halyard.

"The building will have commanding panoramic views of the harbor and Wall Street; and Wall Streeters will have a clear view of this signature building," said Duncan Reid, senior associate principal of Kohn Pedersen Fox. "It's designed to make a defining statement marking the success of Newport at the river edge while restyling the entire Jersey City skyline."

NOC VII's interior will feature 46,000-square-foot. column-free floors, a marble and granite lobby, state-of-the-art redundant fiber optic telecommunications systems and indoor parking facilities. Tenants will be treated to unobstructed views of the Manhattan sky. line. The building will also feature 12,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.