Forget working from home: Today’s millennial employees expect their workplace to actually feel like home.
And building owners have responded — creating marketing centers that look like model apartments to show that in raw, new or forthcoming spaces, something can be created from nothing. And, in the process, making it easier to get leases signed.
“The millennials have different values,” explained Mikael Nahmias, executive director, Cushman & Wakefield. “They are not looking for the nicest office, but the nicest laptop. You are reachable all the time and that is giving rise to the third places or amenity places we are focused on.”
The recent rise of collaborative workspaces and cozy dining areas means less office furniture and fixtures and a more residential-looking design. Miele, Bosch and Sub-Zero appliances are popping up in pantries and conference rooms, along with Herman Miller Aeron chairs and Knoll desks.
And marketing centers are implementing this upscale look.
“A lot of the residential features are becoming the norm on the commercial end,” said Zach Freeman, vice president of leasing, Equity Office.
Typically, marketing centers are created when a building owner has a large availability coming up or is undergoing a capital renovation to the lobbies and facade. Sometimes, they are trying to reposition the asset tied to that upcoming block of space.
“It’s a place to control the tour experience,” explained Paul Glickman, vice chairman of JLL, of the use of the marketing center. “You also need the marketing center to showcase materials, floor plans, and test fits.”
While Glickman has recently collaborated on a dozen marketing centers, two standouts are at 11 Times Square, at W. 41 St. and Eighth Ave., where Microsoft later leased offices, and another at 237 Park Ave., near Grand Central Terminal, that will be undergoing a major renovation.
Unlike a pre-built, which may be devoid of furniture but shows off the level of finishes and may be ready for a tenant to move in its own furniture, marketing centers show off what can be done with upcoming spaces.
“Landlords are allocating a significant part of the marketing budget to the marketing center,” said Nahmias.
Part of the reasoning is that there is simply a lot of space coming to market and much of that is in buildings that do not yet exist.
“I may have sophisticated audio-video presentations that will show what the finished product will look like, as well as what amenities are coming to the building or the area, and a preview of the views in any direction,” said Nahmias.
Views are obtained via a drone or from a remote-controlled hot air balloon with a camera.
At 75 Rockefeller Plaza, which was entirely vacated and is now controlled by RXR, a marketing suite will be showing test fits; it is being furnished as a sales office by Cushman & Wakefield’s team.
For Brookfield Properties’ upcoming Manhattan West, the Cushman brokers created marketing centers in Midtown, Downtown and at 450 W. 33rd St., which has been renamed 5 Manhattan West.
At the latter, an audio-visual program describes the intricate construction technology that was used to create the new platform over the railroad tracks so the buildings can grow above it. The program also describes the changes coming to the Hudson Yards neighborhood and the marketing center shows off potential layouts and renderings of finished interiors.
At the World Trade Center, Larry Silverstein created a large marketing center for his towers on a floor of 7 World Trade Center. Here, his CBRE brokers could bring up potential tenants and look out over the construction of the towers, the 9/11 Memorial Museum, the Memorial Pools and the Santiago Calatrava transportation hub.
Similarly, as soon as it was feasible, Cushman & Wakefield, in collaboration with the Durst Organization, partially built out a floor of One World Trade Center. Potential tenants could check out the construction and the views, as well as how various conference rooms, collaborative spaces and other areas could lay out along with furniture and fixtures.
Architect Scott Spector, principal of the Spector Group, has been involved in the creation of marketing centers such as the one at 920 Broadway, where a pre-built was actually used as a marketing center for the building.
“We pre-built a floor and added furniture, and sometimes built reception desks or included subtle pieces of furniture to give a vibe,” said Spector.
RFR recently completed a marketing center at 285 Madison Ave. in collaboration with CBRE. The floor includes build-outs of different offices that are targeted to different tenant types, along with different types of ceilings and even grasses to show what a roof garden could look like.
“It’s like going into a Neiman Marcus-type department store,” said Spector. “It was designed beautifully and implemented even better.”
Spector also created a marketing center for RFR and Kushner Companies for their DUMBO/Brooklyn Heights buildings, which are being redeveloped from a former Jehovah’s Witness complex.
When potential tenants come in, Spector said, they can open and close pantry cabinets or sit in furniture which is put in place to help give it scale. Sometimes Spector noted, the marketing center is so well-designed, the tenant will insist on leasing that floor, and the building owner will move on to yet another floor.
Some owners completely build out spaces just to get them leased. At 1140 Ave. of the Americas, Equity Office built out the entire 10,000-square-foot 19th floor, along with the wraparound terrace that has access to Central Park views from both a reception area and one of the private offices.
Freeman said, “It is full ‘plug and play’ and obviously we designed it to cater to high-end financial users,” he said of the space. “It has all the bells and whistles.” Those include a pantry with a separate wet bar, Miele dishwasher, Sub-Zero fridge, icemaker and a high-end Nespresso machine.
The company also built out the smaller, 8,500-square-foot 21st floor with similar finishes.
Freeman noted that these are not marketing centers but a “spec build-out,” as the company has simply completely built out the floors as they became available.
At 717 Fifth Ave., the 8,431-square-foot 17th floor in the tower was also built out on spec and designed towards a finance-oriented tenant. This floor lays out well for a private equity firm as its side core allows numerous perimeter offices with “phenomenal” Central Park views, conference areas and a large pantry with the “name” high-end appliances, Freeman said.
All that high-end material comes with a high-end asking rent of $120 a foot.
“A lot of the tenants don’t have the vision and many are now looking for immediate spaces,” explained Freeman. “Because at the end of the year, they typically get their bonuses and start to form new firms.”
