Building owners on high alert

Real Estate Weekly, Feb 19, 2003 by Elaine Misonzhnik

Amid the daily terror alerts and the increasing uneasiness in the city, Governor George Pataki has issued a security advisory on Feb. 7, recommending that landlords take extra precautions, such as increased security guard presence, mail screening procedures, and the removal of vegetation in front of buildings. New York's landlords and property managers, however, are finding the suggestions about as helpful as the advice to regular citizens to "report strange behavior" and "avoid riding the subway."

"Enforce good housekeeping. Lock cabinets and store rooms when not in use. Only provide access to appropriate personnel when needed," the advisory reads. "Monitor taxi, bus, and limo traffic surrounding your building."

"The advice they give is really kind of redundant," noted Robert B. Frankel, senior managing director of GVA Williams. "Most of the people in the industry did a lot of things in the past year and a half to catch up. Everybody I know increased the number of security guards and instituted photo IDs for people entering the building after Sept. 11."

Frankel, who manages approximately 19 million SF in the New York region, said the security measures at his buildings include digital video cameras, a ban on upper floor deliveries, and emergency education for tenants. But considering that he has no high-risk tenants he doesn't want to go overboard with precautions.

"I do see across the street, at the Bear Stearns building, security guards with mirrors at the end of sticks checking underneath the vehicles near the building," he noted. "But I haven't instituted that."

For his part, Douglas Velotta, director of security at the New Yorker Hotel, said that his team couldn't do any more than it has been doing since Sept 11.

"We are just being a little more diligent now," he said. "In a hotel, what we normally look for are bags that have been sitting by themselves for a long period of time or individuals who look unusual. But that's something we look for anyway, terror alert or not"

The response seems to be the same all around the city. Adam R. Rose, president of Rose Associates, admitted that the company modified its security procedures since the last terror attack, but he found the governor's advice unnecessary. "We are not doing anything different today than we did a year ago," he said. "We changed a lot of our policies after Sept. 11, but the increase of the threat level will not result in any additional changes at our properties. We are not going to cut down all the trees in front of our buildings."