The Plan: Halo Event Space Makes Debut at Fosun’s 28 Liberty Street

There’s something glowing in the center of 28 Liberty Street.

It’s Halo, the recently opened event space surrounding a luminous sunken art installation at the base of Fosun Hive’s Financial District skyscraper.

The Halo event venue spans 30,000 square feet at the base of the 2.2 million-square-foot tower on 2.5 acres and can fit up to 750 guests, according to Hush Venues, which is operating and marketing the new space.

A circle-shaped sunken fountain art installation featuring rock formations lit up with an angelic glow is the centerpiece of Halo, helping it stand apart from other event venues yet still have plenty of room around the sides for guests.

The venue — which can be entered at street level — was built in consideration of the building’s original midcentury construction, said Jason Berkeley, chief operating officer of Four Trees Capital Management, Fosun’s asset manager.

“The building is landmarked, so we wanted to make sure that we were keeping the space really original and respecting the history of the building and the space in terms of design and what we’re looking to achieve visibly,” Berkeley said.

Hush was brought in long-term to manage the venue and is catering the space to clientele ranging from Fortune 500 companies to large-scale trade shows to social events. It’s intended for clients to customize according to their needs, said Sara Altobelli, a partner at Hush.

“We know that a successful space is one that can be kind of a chameleon in many ways,” Altobelli said.

Because of that, aside from the halo in the middle, the space is mainly a blank canvas with black exposed ductwork on the ceiling.

Fosun decided to build Halo after plans for a food hall fell through and the developer saw potential for a site in conjunction with Union Square Hospitality Group’s Manhatta, a 20,000-square-foot restaurant and event space on the top floor of 28 Liberty Street that has seen success in past years.

And Fosun and Hush are constructing Halo through a “design build process,” in which construction resumes on the project after each hosted event, the team said. Berkeley declined to provide the cost of building the space, as the budget is still a “moving target.”

The team completed “phase one” of construction earlier this month, when they hosted its debut event, the Carolina Herrera fashion show as part of New York Fashion Week, Altobelli said.

The second round of “functional and aesthetic work” should be complete by Oct. 20, while the final configuration will be done around Jan. 1, Berkeley said.

When it’s not rented out, Berekely said Fosun wants to let the public enjoy Halo as it tries to make the building somewhat of a “lifestyle center.”

Between Manhatta at the top of the building, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema at the bottom, pickleball and tennis courts at Court 16, and a soon-to-be-constructed soccer roof, Fosun has tried to establish 28 Liberty Street as a multipurpose destination.

“[Halo] was a great addition to build onto the breadth of encompassing, sort of almost branding the building as a lifestyle center,” Berkeley said. “Hush has clearly been the right partner for Halo.”

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.