BY JENNIFER V. HUGHES
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY MONDAY PROPERTIES
When Monday Properties began renovating the visitors center at the Helmsley Building—the Beaux Arts masterpiece at 230 Park Avenue that once housed New York Central Railroad—a little design problem cropped up.
The new visitors check-in area had formerly been a tiny newsstand, which the paper-seller had entered by crawling through a hole in the counter’s wall.
Needless to say, this would no longer do.
A traditional door was needed for security personnel, but because the 1929 building is landmarked, alterations must adhere to strict guidelines. So workers rummaged through the building’s basement and found a 1920s-era door. The golden-latticed door in the new visitors center now perfectly complements dozens of other golden-toned flourishes throughout the lush lobby. The renovation job is just one of the ways that 230 Park Avenue is trying to reposition itself for the future.
“You don’t want to make it look too modern and you don’t want to make it look too old, or you give the impression of something that hasn’t been renovated,” says Hani Salama, vice president of property management and operations for Monday’s New York region. “You’re trying to find that balance.”
Marrying the building’s classic dowager grace with modern upgrades has been a priority since Monday Properties, in partnership with Goldman Sachs, bought 230 Park Avenue from the Dubai sovereign wealth fund on Christmas Eve 2007 for $1.15 billion. Monday has managed the property for more than a decade.
“There is a real balance of goals when you add contemporary elements to a historic landmark,” says Monday Properties President and CEO Anthony Westreich. “Services we take for granted—like security equipment and visitor access—need to fit in seamlessly.”
Not surprisingly, Westreich adds, “230 Park has always attracted the city’s best tenants.”
Law firm Kurzman Karelsen and Frank is one of 230’s original tenants and remains there for the prime location and reasonable rents. But Richard Miller, former managing partner, doesn’t discount the Helmsley Building’s charms.
“Our clients have [said] that they feel very comfortable coming to a building that has this look rather than something super modern,” Miller says. “That’s something we’ve grown accustomed to, and it’s part of our business decision.”
Along with upgrading the entrances, Monday has continued the building’s dedication to energy-saving measures.
“We need to modernize this building to keep it up with our competitors while still keeping the character of this classic landmark building,” says Craig Panzirer, senior vice president and director of leasing.
Part of the changes include the building’s very name. Although the Helmsley name remains on 230 Park, about a year ago, Monday rechristened it the Crown Jewel of Park Avenue as part of a drive to highlight the 35-story, 1.4-million-square-foot building’s luxury and beauty.
Monday Properties began the visitors center’s renovations last December. The entrance at 45th Street was completed in March and the entrance at 46th Street will be done by June. The goal is that both entrances, while new, will complement the rest of the lobby’s grandeur.
Previously, visitors entering at 45th Street, which is closest to Grand Central Station, were forced to walk to the other side to clear security. After both centers are done, visitors can enter either side.
“Seventy-five percent of our visitor traffic comes from the Grand Central side so it was annoying for people to have to walk around the block for a pass,” says Salama.
Once inside the lobby, guests are greeted by soaring ceilings filled with enormous elaborate chandeliers (with energy-efficient bulbs). Even the building’s elevators—with red lacquer walls, gold-filigreed chandeliers and painted-sky ceilings—are landmarked.
When marble had to be added to part of the visitor’s center, workers took samples from other parts of the lobby and shopped around to find matches in the Bronx and Brooklyn, says Salama. That attention to detail can also be seen in a gold-toned screen that is part of the security desk. While the pattern is not identical to the golden-grated vents in the lobby, it complements them perfectly.
“[The New York City] Landmarks [Preservation Commission] does not want you to match exactly, they don’t want it to look like the 1929 original but they do want it to blend,” says Salama. As the former director of operations at the Empire State Building for nine years, Salama is accustomed to the demands of working on a landmark building. He chose prestigious architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle for the job.
Monday Properties has also made energy efficiency a priority. Due to upgrades to the building’s windows, lighting, and HVAC systems over the past 10 years, an energy audit showed that 230 Park was qualified to be an Energy Star building.
That means 230 uses 35 percent less energy than similar buildings, says Maura Beard, Energy Star spokeswoman. In 2008, 78 New York City buildings received Energy Star designations. Only 15 are as old, or older, than 230 Park.
For Panzirer, energy efficiency is not an option: “It’s going to be a box that any real estate executive has to check in the future.”
Monday Properties is not the only entity at 230 Park with an eye on the environment. One of the largest tenants, Dutch Insurance giant ING Group, is slated to receive a Gold LEED certification from the United States Green Building Council this summer. Citywide, only 20 other commercial tenants have attained LEED certification.
Monday estimates that in 10 years about $100 million has been spent on renovations. One small project is yet another merger of past and future. On one marble lobby wall, a large brass panel lists all the tenants—dating back to a time when visitors looked up destinations and boarded elevators, without security checks.
Monday has commissioned an artist to create a bas-relief brass mural to cover the old directory. The mural, to be completed this summer, will depict the building and a steam locomotive—an homage to the building’s roots in the railroad industry.
“You’re taking an old directory and turning it into something much nicer,” says Salama. “It’s also part of the rebranding of our building. We’re trying to make the train and 230 Park in the background almost like a logo. It brings some more elegance to the building. And it’s part of history.”
