Real estate firms CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, JLL and Newmark and their brokers were recognized last week for helping to shape and sustain Avenue of the Americas in midtown Manhattan.
Large brokerages “are literally accelerators to value and invaluable simultaneously,” said Whitney Arcaro, chair of the Avenue of the Americas Association, last week at the group’s 99th anniversary gala in awarding the Gold Key Award to each of the firms. Arcaro is also RXR Realty’s chief revenue officer of residential.
While not a business improvement district, the association addresses corporate operations and quality of life issues along the Avenue of the Americas corridor such as public safety. Avenue of the Americas is also known as Sixth Avenue.
The stretch is home to corporate giants such as media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp. and News Corp. at 1211 Avenue of the Americas and has outpaced the city as a whole in the corridor's office rebound from the pandemic. Vornado Realty Trust CEO Steven Roth, for instance, has said the Class A office stock on Sixth Avenue, just like the corporate-headquarters-heavy Park Avenue to the east, has a single-digit vacancy rate that’s far lower than the market average.
“As someone who's been in this business for 32 years, I've had a lot of chances for repositioning buildings,” CBRE’s Vice Chairman Peter Turchin said at the event held at the Marriott Marquis hotel. He accepted an award on behalf of his firm.
“Repositioning is really hard, but one of the things that is not hard is convincing people about the location and prominence of Avenue the Americas," Turchin said. "We've all heard of districts in New York City that are downtrodden … that need to be revitalized. … When was the last time you heard that about Avenue of the Americas? ... It’s always remained a great asset to tenants."