The Plan: From Class B to Class A, Queens’ Cord Meyer Office Building Gets New Look

They say the defining characteristic of prime real estate is location, location, location. If you ask the team at Cord Meyer Development, this old cliche is a motto to live by — especially in Queens. 

To help mark 120 years in business, Cord Meyer recently redeveloped its own office building at 108-18 Queens Boulevard between Continental Avenue and 71st Road in Forest Hills — an area the company’s leadership says you just can’t beat. 

“It’s an irreplaceable location,” said John Simone, chief operating officer at Cord Meyer. “The Long Island Rail Road is a block away, every train you want is right here. There are buses, food, it’s an extremely active corner.” 

Built in 1964 by Cord Meyer, the 85,000-square -foot, nine-story office building was an “underperforming asset” for a while, Simone said, with a lot of small, non-credit tenants. So, in 2023, Cord Meyer decided to reposition the building from a Class B space to a Class A asset.

Now the Cord Meyer Building — as it is commonly known — features a fully refurbished lobby, redesigned office spaces and a landscaped outdoor terrace with gardens and seating areas. Some offices and the outdoor space aren’t yet finished, but the boasting has already begun.

“It is a beautiful space with seating and dining areas, it has a pergola, and a bar area where tenants can host events,” said Matthew O’Grady, vice president of leasing at Cord Meyer. “It’s a nice amenity for the building that doesn’t exist in this marketplace. And that’s what we’re trying to develop here: a real boutique office building.”

The lobby renovations wrapped up earlier this year, with the Cord Meyer team bringing in all new materials for the flooring, lighting and ceiling as well as expanding upon the existing marble. 

Cord Meyer also bought new furniture for the lobby and installed a continuously updating transit board that keeps tenants informed about the area’s bus, subway and LIRR schedules. The lobby also has full-time staff and allows tenants 24/7 access. 

The building’s mechanical systems have been replaced, in part to make the address compliant with New York City’s Local Law 97, which was designed to curb carbon emissions from buildings. 

“There had been a lot of deferred maintenance in the building,” O’Grady said. “The building hadn’t been renovated probably since it was built, with the exception of small office renovations. But there hadn’t been a wholesale remodel of the building in many, many years, and it needed it.” 

Cord Meyer’s own office space is on the ninth floor. A company known as ENT and Allergy Associates leased the entire sixth floor, TD Bank took the entire second floor, and PrimeLine Utility Services took space on the fifth floor. (These floors are already renovated.) 

The firm also signed leases for the ground-floor retail space with Just Salad, 7th Street Burger and Wells Fargo.

There are still two full floors to be leased at the Cord Meyer building, O’Grady and Simone said. 

“We’re operating on a floor-by-floor basis,” Simone said. “We’re emptying each floor, completely gutting it, abating it of all asbestos, and then doing high-quality build-outs for our new tenants. By the end of the year, we’ll have six of the eight floors completely done.”

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.