When public relations doyenne Florence Quinn decided she wanted her Quinn PR office in Midtown South to resemble a Restoration Hardware retail store, she reached out to the RH Contract office and stocked up.
But after her client, Grant Greenspan, saw her office, the Kaufman Organization principal realized the designs would also fit his company’s own Madison Square Park-area office buildings.
It’s a sign: Restoration Hardware has long had a robust hotel and retail design business, but the company is now pushing into the contract office space.
Greenspan’s request to set up model rooms and test fits on the sixth floor of 19 W. 24th St. coincided with the launch of the commercial division of RH Contract’s office line.
After RH staged the 5,148-square-foot floor, the Kaufman Organization hosted an event with Interior Design magazine specifically for design professionals. At the party, Greenspan also participated in a round-table talk with architects and designers and discussed how this line could fit the needs of commercial tenants.
“The event gave me a goal to complete the lobby,” Greenspan says of 19W24, which now has a lobby with illuminated, three-dimensional wooden fins and elevator shaft artwork by Skott Marsi as part of its gut renovation. Chef Jared Sippel’s restaurant, Italienne, is also opening on the ground floor.
For several weeks, the sixth floor at 19W24 became a showroom for Restoration Hardware while prospective tenants toured spaces that showed off the furniture test fits.
Restoration Hardware also created four design concepts exclusively for the Kaufman tenants leasing at 45 W. 27th St. (45W27), 15 W. 27th St. (15W27) and 19 W. 24th St. (19W24). New tenants are also being offered free consultations, customization and a discount on the furniture.
“Tenants have a shortsighted view of what the space will look like,” says Greenspan. “Some of them saw the furniture in place, and we now have a look book with photos and renderings. It is easing the tenant’s choices.”
The model rooms and match-up with Restoration Hardware have already paid off for Greenspan, who quickly rented three floors with asking rents from the mid-$60s to mid-$70s per square foot.
