NEWNEW YORKYORK

Building From the Inside Out

An Interview with Edward J. Minskoff, President, Edward J. Minskoff Equities, Inc.

EDITORS’ NOTE Before founding $14-billion hedge fund, and Mail Online, but we spend more time during the design pro- his own company in 1987, Edward one of the oldest publishing companies cess on the interior, fl oor plates, and core design to Minskoff was Chief Executive Offi cer in England. The leaders at all of those make the building a perfect mousetrap for whoever and Principal of Olympia & York. In companies expressly wanted to be in will occupy the space. December 2009, he was awarded an that location and it has all of the requi- Do companies understand how the de- honorary doctorate in business from site infrastructure. sign of a building can impact productivity? Michigan State University. These neighborhoods now have Companies today are much more sophisti- hotels and great shopping, as well as cated than they were 30 years ago, when they COMPANY BRIEF The primary ob- great mass transit. 51 Astor is an example: would have someone marching them around to jective of Edward J. Minskoff Equities, You can get there from Grand Central in look at buildings and decide on one. They never Inc. (ejmequities.com; EJME) is to own, eight minutes; from Penn Station in 12 asked the most important questions about the develop, and manage institutional minutes; and we have the Path Line on mechanical systems, the fl oor plate effi ciencies, quality real estate in major urban Edward J. Minskoff Ninth Street one block away. loss factors, and the other things they need to centers. Selectively, EJME also develops How much can you do to upgrade know about today, where every building we de- high-end residential properties. It is the corporate older buildings, to make them competitive? sign has two points of entry, high ceiling height, policy of EJME to oversee all phases of its properties, Any building I’ve built has the 14-feet slab-to- and suffi cient electrical loads. including design/development, management, leas- slab ceiling heights. We have pressed to put this in Most companies think they need more electric ing, and fi nancing. every one of our designs. Now, with 101 Avenue of than they actually use, but we design every build- the Americas, you had an institutional box to start ing with an unused vault in the street that we fi ll Has full recovery taken place in real estate and with. The exterior is great looking and the architec- with sand in anticipation so that 10 years from now, do you believe it is sustainable? ture conforms with that neighborhood look. if there is more electric required, we don’t have If you’re dealing with the economy as a We gutted the inside of the building so all to go back to Con Ed and have diffi culty getting whole, there are still major urban U.S. centers that of the toilets are brand new; brand new DX units it – we have the unused vault from which to build have not recovered fully. New York happens to be on every fl oor; brand new BMS; brand new Class our capacity. one city that has recovered beyond most people’s E; brand new elevators and controls for the eleva- The effi ciency and design are critically impor- expectations; San Francisco is another. tors; brand new security system – I even gutted the tant. There have also been studies done by major New York has improved selectively – not lobby from fl oor to ceiling. corporations in this country that say if employees across the board. There are certain sections of New So other than the four outer walls, the building are in a great-looking, effi cient, and cool building, York that have dramatically changed over the years, is a 21st Century state-of-the-art LEED-designated the absenteeism drops dramatically and their pro- and that 15 years ago one would not walk with his building. duction goes up dramatically. family alone at night, like the , which is one In this building, we have New York Genome, If they’re housed in an old building that of the hottest areas today. which is probably one of the greatest examples doesn’t serve their needs properly, they may not There have been pockets that have changed of the biotech industry expansion in New York. show up as much over a 12-month period. and people are addressing those changes by devel- They’re the answer in the future to curing many Will LEED-certifi ed be the norm going oping more residential and more commercial of- diseases. forward? fi ce buildings as are being developed in Nine fl oors were also leased to Two Sigma, We will do it because the tenants out there South. which is a $20-billion fund that has had incredible ask about it. Do I believe it’s 100 percent necessary? We developed 51 , which is com- earnings over the past 10 years. Probably not. I don’t think it adds tremendous qual- pleted and virtually 98 percent leased, and we also None of these companies could physically op- ity, it defi nitely doesn’t add effi ciencies, it will never completed 101 Avenue of the Americas, which erate their businesses and function effectively with- change the mechanical design of the building, the was a building I developed 22 years ago. A tenant out the mechanical, electrical, and communications electrical capacities, the risers – they will all be the moved out and we gutted the building and only facilities in the building. same from our perspective. retained the exterior walls – everything else in the What are your primary considerations in But LEED is also about how many miles away building is 100 percent brand new. That building is developing an offi ce building? you buy materials – there is stuff in like that, which 98 percent leased today with very strong tenants. One cannot plan to build an offi ce building has no direct impact on how good the building is. Companies today in tech, biotech, and fi nance unless he can build a rectangle or square, be- Will you remain focused on New York or do are not necessarily moving to midtown or growing cause those are the only kind of buildings that are you see greater opportunities in other markets? in midtown. Young people today want to work and effi cient for offi ce space. Oval buildings are inef- I’ve looked at other markets and I have built live south of . As long as you have mass fi cient and will never work. a number of offi ce buildings in Southern California, transit accessibility, then the neighborhoods aren’t We design every building we’ve ever done and I would not mind returning there. There are dictated by what they were 20 years ago. from the inside out. We’ve never designed a build- other cities that have opportunities still, like Sixth Avenue is a great location, as is Madison ing from the outside in, because we’re designing Washington, D.C., and probably Boston. I need and Park, but they’re not primary for users today. buildings for the user and the user’s effi ciency. We to focus on cities where there is upward mobile At 51 Astor Place, our major tenant is IBM Watson, a create great looking buildings because I want that, growth.• 122 LEADERS POSTED WITH PERMISSION. COPYRIGHT © 2014 LEADERS MAGAZINE, INC. VOLUME 37, NUMBER 4