Featured speakers included professionals from Jamestown Properties, Himmel+Meringoff Properties, RFR Holding LLC, Related Companies and L&L Holding Company, with a keynote from William C. Rudin, CEO & Vice Chairman of Rudin Management Company, Inc.
In his keynote, William Rudin addressed making buildings more attractive to tenants:
• In order to attract top companies, owners need to have their game at the “best level” possible.
• Rudin partnered with the Downtown Alliance over 20 years ago to reposition 55 Broad Street for tech companies.
• They created a high speed network which gave tenants a “choice” – something no one else was doing.
• This is why it only took 18 months to reach 100% occupancy at 55 Broad after the reposition.
• When competing on a global level, you have to think of ways to make your building better.
This is some of what we heard during the panel discussions:
First panel
• Ashkan Zandleh (RE:Tech) - Tech companies are coming to NYC to expand. Tech companies seized the moment during the recession and took advantage of the supply of space in midtown south.
• Steven Rosenbaum (Magnify.net) sees LA creeping up on NYC by becoming a “real digital competitor and content creator”.
• Molly Zinzi (Google) – says Google is constantly challenging engineers to make new products and move quickly. All this plays into real estate decisions.
• She runs a 5 star hotel and encourages employees to use resources in the community.
• The environment in Google’s NYC office is different than in Mountain View - every “Googler” has a desk.
• Google is here because their employees want to be in NYC and they’re close to the ad revenue.
Second Panel
• Steven Meringoff (Himmel+Meringoff) says when leasing space, they’re concerned with the growth of a company. Tech companies change quickly and owners need to keep up with space requirements.
• Owners need to proactively seek opportunities to retrofit buildings with new technology such as fiber optic networks.
• Tech companies in growth mode should build space that is generic so they can easily sub-lease.
• It’s important to have communal spaces.
• Meringoff says NYC is a “tale of many cities” – there are companies that want to be close to transport centers and others that are attracted to cool regardless of transportation.
• Gregg Popkin (RFR) says areas that are most popular are incredibly supply-constrained.
• Popkin believes the boroughs are finally participating in the growth of NYC. It’s now hard to find areas where you don't want to be.
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