New York’s iconic Empire State Building, upping its game to lure office tenants, will add a basketball court and a town hall meeting space for 400 people among new tenant-exclusive amenities it will offer.
Billed as the “World’s Most Famous Building,” the tower will create a tenant-only amenity space in the next year to include not only the basketball court and town hall space but also food and bar service and a reservable lounge with two golf simulators, parent Empire State Realty Trust said Tuesday in a statement.
The space will be built in a concourse-level space with vaulted ceilings, Empire State Realty said. The real estate investment trust said a Newmark team led by the brokerage firm’s vice chairman Scott Klau, whose team has also worked with the REIT “with great success” on other properties including One Grand Central Place, has been named the building’s leasing agent.
A case in point, the REIT said on Monday iCapital, a financial services firm offering technology geared toward alternative asset investments, has expanded its space for the fourth time since 2017 at One Grand Central Place.
“Now with our large block availability, we offer a destination for all sizes of tenants in their flights to quality” at the Empire State Building, Anthony Malkin, the REIT’s chairman, president and chief executive, said in the statement.
In addition to the newly planned amenity space, the current tenant-only amenities at the art deco tower include a 15,000-square-foot fitness center, a private conference center, and seven in-building dining options, including Tacombi, State Grill and Bar, and a new 23,000-square-foot Starbucks Reserve scheduled to open this year.
The building “is an iconic brand with modern infrastructure, committed ownership, industry-leading energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality, and a central location with easy access to major transit hubs,” Klau said. “Every quality tenant can give its employees a unique, personalized experience at an unmatched value, from our more than 274,000 square foot large block to pre-built spaces, for the building’s unrivaled amenities and offerings. It is a true employee attraction and retention tool for today’s world.”
The top-tier building has an office vacancy rate of 5.9%, less than half the 12.2% average vacancies in New York, according to CoStar data. It also fares better than the 15.1% average vacancy rate seen among other top-tier office towers in the city.
Current office tenants include stock photography firm Shutterstock, beauty company Coty, outdoor advertising company JCDecaux, and career site LinkedIn, according to the property website.