One Penn Plaza is new Midtown South jewel

Real Estate Weekly, Nov 17, 1993 by Lois Weiss

One fuzzy picture tells it all: Dead center, a rectangular modern office building pokes up into the sunlight through dense white clouds. The photo was taken from the nearby Empire State Building and its sun drenched focal point down 34th Street is One Penn Plaza.

Soon, the office building's lofty 55-stories and nearly universal 360--degree views of two states will become even more conspicuous to skyline watchers.

A 35-foot white neon "One Penn" is slated to be installed on the four sides of the 2.4 million square foot tower along with distinctive red pinpoints.

"It is a huge building and will have major signage," describes Peter L. Malkin, one of the owners of the building along with Harry B. Helmsley and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. "It's really going to show, and for the first time, along with a $25 mill ion improvement project, One Penn Plaza will be an identified landmark."

One Penn will finally get the attention it deserves, he says, as a first-class office tower with all the amenities and better transportation access than nearly any other office tower in the city.

"It's a fantastic location because it sits on top of the LIRR and Penn Station," served Malkin of the building's adjoining transportation hub. "All the subways go there. PATH comes in; Amtrack, everything." There is also good access to its 700-car garage from the Lincoln and Midtown Tunnels, Madison Square Garden, the nearby Javits Center and Herald Square shopping district.

While the glowing signage might put One Penn on the New Yorker awareness map, that isn't to say it hasn't been noticed before by savvy corporate executives.

The building is more than 90 percent leased after signing over I million square feet in the last 24 months. In 1993 alone, 57 leases were signed for 360,000 square feet and another 140 leases are out for signature.

An ongoing, aggressive pitch for space is being made under the leadership of Daniel E. North, vice president and director of management and leasing for Helmsley-Spear, the managing agent for Mid-City Associates, the official ownership designation.

"We're the one that everybody wants to be as good as," said North of One Penn. "I think we have the best building in the area. We have the best views," he added, a benefit of the curtain wall construction.

North recently snared Automated Data Processing with a 10-year 34,000 square foot lease from shorter rival Five Penn Plaza nearby. This coup was accounted for by its broker, Steven B. Cohen of Cushman & Wakefield, on the One Penn owners' deep commitment to the building and the millions of dollars in tenant improvements and renovations.

"We are now looking for ways to spend the $25 million for the benefit of the tenants," said North. "It's not designed to be |repair and maintenance' but only improvements to the building for the benefit of the tenants."

Somewhere between $18 million and $20 million will be spent on physical items, North said. Both the 33rd Street and 34th Street entrances will be renovated along with the huge airy lobby; plazas on Seventh and Eighth Avenues; street level, intermediate level and railroad access concourses, as well as all the public corridors. Additionally, all 44 elevators and other mechanical equipment is being upgraded.

A visitor is struck immediately by the cleanliness of the air - a rarity in this city of smokers - that experts say can be attributed to the owner's attention to maintenance of the HVAC systems, another item on the upgrade list.

Malkin said they will be spending about $7 million on HVAC alone, by completely updating the systems, making them even more efficient and controllable on a floor by floor basis. Even now, North observed, operating systems are under both computer and manual controls.

The Eighth Avenue plaza is being completely redesigned and re-landscaped. Four restaurants will serve a variety of food, from quality tablecloth to Italian to Asian, says Malkin, so it will become a destination point for the neighborhood. A bistro named Beama Grill has already been signed.

The Seventh Avenue plaza is also being reworked and landscaped. "It will be a complete redesign of the look," explains Malkin, of what is now no more than a convenient but scary mid-block shortcut. North noted the arcade redesign will make it less inhibiting to pedestrians and shoppers. "It will house food service kiosks as well as a large restaurant," Malkin said.

These plazas will be open to public during the daytime and like other city parks, close once the restaurants stop serving for the night.

On the LIRR concourse level,,,the MTA/LIRR is spending $200 million while Amtrack is putting in $300 million to redesign its entrance and bring high-speed trains to service the Boston to Washington corridor.

Malkin said the owners of One Penn will be putting in "a lot of money" to change the elements of the present One Penn concourse entrances along with upgrading storefronts.

While the owners and on-site executives are still fiddling with exact designs, color choices and other details, North notes, "the money's in the bank, and it must be spent." He expects the entire renovation program to take around two years. "It can't happen overnight," he explained.