GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: C&W Wins Manhattan Mall Mgmt. Contract

The one-million-sf property at 100 W. 33rd St., once the home of legendary department store Gimbel's, has undergone yet another metamorphosis, and this time the emphasis is on office space. So, it's out with retail specialist Shopco Advisory Corp. and in with office experts C&W.

"Our thrust is to look at operations--security, cleaning, energies, efficiencies, tenant creature comforts--and bring our experience to bear," C&W managing director Joseph A. Lagano tells GlobeSt.com. "We go in and review all the leases, view all the operations of the building and record any changes in the building with our portfolio managers and property managers. We make recommendations as we find things that need to be adjusted."

As to what those adjustments might entail, "it's too soon to tell," Lagano notes. Hardly surprising when you consider that five floors of the building have been redeveloped from retail to office space and a new granite lobby is being designed for the property. Two floors of office space have already been leased by Bank of America and building owner Argent Ventures is reportedly close to a deal on the other three.

According to Argent president Andrew Penson, while the rejuvenated Times Square's southern ripple effect has been most noticeable for retailers, it is also transforming the neighborhood's office environment. "The nature of retailers is being upgraded. I credit the 34th St. Partnership for that, they've created a semblance of order along 34th Street." But, he adds, the renovation of Herald and Greeley squares, new construction in the area and its close proximity to Pennsylvania Station have made the Manhattan Mall location "an acceptable class A office neighborhood."

C&W will be the third firm to manage the 92-year-old property in as many years. Chicago-based Urban Retail Properties had the agency from December 1999 through June 2001 when Shopco took over. Nine months later, Argent signed C&W. Shopco president Marc Yassky refused to comment on his firm's brief history with the building. "It's between us and [Argent]," he tells GlobeSt.com. "I don't feel the need to discuss it."

Built in 1910 for Macy's archrival, the building was redeveloped as a vertical mall in 1988 for a reported $400 million. Argent picked up the property in the late '90s for a paltry $135 million and converted 450,000 sf of foundering retail to office space. Bank of America will move 400 workers displaced from the World Trade Center into its 180,000-sf.