NEW YORK CITY-Hines said Thursday that it's been hired by Edge Fund Advisors as redeveloper and property manager for 4 New York Plaza, a Lower Manhattan office tower that Edge Fund and HSBC bought this past May. The 1.1-million-square-foot, 22-story office building took a severe hit when Superstorm Sandy slammed the region in October.

“With our long history of working with mission critical systems and facilities, and with Hines' expertise in these environments, we are quite confident in the timely restoration of these functions and the reinstatement of the tenants,” Jim Lacancellera, managing director with Hines, says in a release. Lacancellera is leading the renovation on the property, for which Edge Fund and HSBC Alternative Investments Limited paid a reported $274.4 million to acquire it from Harbor Group International. HGI in turn paid $110 million in an early-2010 sale-leaseback deal with JPMorgan Chase.

When Sandy hit the region this past Oct. 29, it partially destroyed 4 New York Plaza's emergency and critical systems support infrastructure. Incoming electrical service, steam and the city infrastructure were disabled, and several amenity spaces, including the cafeteria, were rendered unusable. The property's elevators were in the process of a complete modernization at the time the storm hit, but now require repairs.

Hines will oversee the restoration of the basic building infrastructure and critical systems support provisions, along with increasing the resiliency of the facility by moving many of these systems to elevations above future storm-surge levels. The cafeteria will be rebuilt and additional amenities will be added, according to Hines.

Further, Hines anticipates that the renovations and equipment replacement will make a significant positive impact on the building's overall energy performance. The restoration is now in progress and Hines expects to complete it by October.

Simultaneously with awarding the redevelopment assignment, Edge Fund hired Hines in April to assume property management responsibilities at the building. CBRE continues as its leasing agent, Lacancellera tells GlobeSt.com. When Edge Fund acquired the tower in 2012, Mark Keller, CEO of the Washington, DC-based company, called it “a long-term strategic play,” representing “a testament to the value we envision from this rebirth of the Downtown market.”