Creative puzzle draws brokers to Chase Manhattan Plaza

Real Estate Weekly, Sept 1, 2004

Creating a buzz in the Manhattan office market is anything but easy, but Newmark did it with a unique marketing strategy designed to draw the attention of the brokerage community to the 44th floor of One Chase Manhattan Plaza, which is available for sublet.

Newmark's Elizabeth Houley and Moshe Sukenik mailed out 750 pieces of a puzzle, a number that includes almost every major commercial broker in Manhattan. Of the 750 puzzle pieces, 14 represented American Express gift cards worth between $200 and $5,000. The "Puzzle Me This" campaign was a success, drawing significant response from the brokerage community. Six brokers won the gift cards. The winners included Chris Bellapianta, of Cushman & Wakefield, Jonathan Fein, of Adams Real Estate, Randolph H. Lewis, of Quest Commercial, Neil Murray, of Murray Hill Properties, Paul Formichelli, of Staubach, and Brian LeDonne, of GVA Williams.

"We wanted to focus on a creative promotion to attract attention to this spectacular space in a market with a significant percentage of sublet space," Houley said. "We wanted to generate excitement in the brokerage community."

The 44th floor of One Chase Manhattan Plaza measures 34,480 s/f and represents the last of the space placed on the market by Zurich Financial Services-North American. Houley said the floor is available in its entirety or can be divided.