While the city, the state and Vornado Realty Trust weigh options for how and when to redevelop the Penn Station and Madison Square Garden area, commercial landlords with properties just outside the proposed condemnation area aren’t waiting to upgrade their buildings.
At the Feil Organization’s 370 Seventh Ave., branded as Seven Penn Plaza, a capital improvements program will bring the prewar, 18-story tower a newly modernized lobby and tenant amenities including a new roof deck by the fourth quarter of 2024. MdeAS Architects is designing.
Feil has owned the address since 1961. Its 368,000 square feet of offices are 85% leased to a diverse array of companies. Among them, KC Engineering and Land Surveying, a tenant for more than 30 years, extended its lease for ten years and expanded from 9,005 square feet to 12,788 sf.
Asking rents are in the mid-$60s per square foot.
As the city’s vital hotel industry struggles to fully recover from the pandemic, it can do with all the public support it can muster. So Mayor Eric Adams’ opening remarks Monday at the Hotel Association of New York City Foundation “red carpet hospitality gala” at the Pierre will be closely followed.
Adams is expected to discuss Big Apple tourism which has rebounded strongly but is still short of pre-pandemic levels. Hotel occupancy rates remain below what they were in 2019.
The gala is co-chaired by HANYC president Vijay Dandapani and chair Fred Grapstein and HANYC Foundation chair Heather Davis. Honorees include Arash Azarbarzin, CEO of Highgate which will open the new Kimpton Hotel Theta in the theater district this fall as part of the IHG Hotels & Resorts portfolio.
