A recently completed office tower in Midtown Manhattan will be transformed Wednesday afternoon into a lush jungle. The story tower, owned by billionaire Mort Zuckerman’s publicly-traded Boston Properties, is hosting the Hugo Boss show at New York Fashion Week.
Fashion and publicly-traded real estate companies aren’t exactly a common pairing, but Boston Properties is capitalizing on the trend of designers moving their shows away from the big tents at Lincoln Center in favor of locations they can personalize and control. That works for Boston Properties’s 250 W. 55th Street, which also hosted a second group, Spanish fashion brand Delpozo, on the building’s 37th floor on Sunday.
The extra income is welcome as the building sits empty–the recently-completed tower is about 60% leased, says Andrew Levin, of Boston Properties, but the first tenant has yet to move in. (Asking price for the offices are $80 to $130 per square foot, and $300 per square foot for the building’s retail space.) Signed tenants include billionaire George Soros’ Soros Fund Management, and law firms Kaye Scholer and Morrison Foerster. Whether the fashion shows will translate into faster tenant sign-ups or increased rents, is doubtful, admits Levin. “For us it’s buzz, publicity, the building is being talked about and tweeted about and pictures are being shown. From our perspective that stuff can’t hurt.”
Many offiste shows are held at event spaces regularly used for the arts–Dion Lee at MILK Studios, Zana Bayne at The Empire Hotel, Moncler at the Hammerstein Ballroom, Dannijo at the Eyebeam gallery–not typically office buildings. Jennifer Blumin, founder of Skylight Group, booked the shows for Boston Properties, as well as the space for Ralph Lauren, at 550 Washington Street. That building, which once served as the Meatpacking District’s freight facility, is now owned jointly by Atlas Capital, Fortress Investment Group, and Westbrook Partners, and rented to commercial tenants like Bloomberg LP.
Blumin’s business in New York is pairing creative events with commercial spaces in transition. “Fashion doesn’t care if it’s leased, torn down, or a train station in three years,” Blumin says. “Fashion is about being now, current. It’s actually a perfect pairing if you think about it.”
Blumin had held the Ralph Lauren show at Skylight Soho for 14 seasons, until Related Companies bought the building. “We had a lease in that space, but it was year-to-year,” she says. “We were never going to be the ones who were able to buy that building. It was like, if you can’t beat them, join them.”
Last fall, Blumin brought the Proenza Schuler show to 250 W. 55th Street, the Boston Properties building. She brought Diesel to an Equity Office Properties building when the tents were held near Bryant Park. She has worked with included Equity Office Properties, formerly owned by Sam Zell, now owned by Blackstone, and Ralph Lauren at a building that was later demolished by Related Companies. Her role is coordinating everything that has to do with the building, while the fashion companies put on the show.
Blumin also finds tenants for events at Moynihan Station, the old Post Office building near Penn Station that is transitioning into an Amtrak station, as well as Skylight One Hanson, a residential condo building in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood, where she recruited the popular Brooklyn Flea to the building’s main floor, and had Kanye West come in for an exclusive, invitation-only show. Blumin proudly points to the results of her efforts.
“They sold One Hanson. They sold 100% of their condos in the down market.”
Last fall we checked out the Proenza Schuler show at 250 W. 55th:
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