Daniel Moore
Daniel Moore
President and CEO at Rockefeller Group
Last year's rank: 61
The Rockefeller Group is breathing new life into Midtown.
The firm is completing its revamp of 1271 Avenue of the Americas, its 48-story tower across from Radio City Music Hall, and shepherding the 1950s-era property into the modern age.
Last year, AIG signed on to take about 325,000 square feet, helping bring the property, which Rockefeller began redeveloping after Time Inc. vacated in 2016, to more than 99 percent leased. With its tenant roster full, the firm is now setting its sights on the roughly $400 million worth of buildouts for incoming firms.
“The success of repositioning this classic piece of the fabric of Midtown, to take all that was good about its original design and all the great aspects about where it is on Avenue of the Americas, and reposition it for success for the next 30 years was a really great achievement for the organization,” said Daniel Moore, president and CEO of Rockefeller Group.
The firm also completed some key dispositions, including the sale of a parcel on West 48th Street to Sam Chang and another hotel operator for a total of more than $100 million.
“It obviously repatriated a significant amount of capital for us that we can deploy in future projects,” Moore said. “There were a lot of things that we did in 2019 that have proven to be powerful for us in 2020.”
To cap off the year, Rockefeller moved into its new headquarters at 1271 Avenue of the Americas. The office’s tech upgrades, which involved new laptops and Zoom-enabled conferencing, helped facilitate the transition to work from home amid the coronavirus-induced shutdown, Moore said. In recent weeks, the firm has been slowly welcoming employees back to the office.
Good thing, because the firm has got a busy 2020 ahead.
After topping out last November at Rose Hill, its luxury condo project in Nomad at 30 East 29th Street, the firm is focused on sales and marketing of the tower’s 120-plus units. Amid the pandemic, the firm was able to conduct virtual showings and put units under contract, Moore said.
There’s also a plan to redesign the east plaza at 1221 Avenue of the Americas, where the sunken recessed plaza will be opened up to pedestrian traffic. The firm, in partnership with Naftali, has also begun construction on a luxury residential tower at 200 East 83rd Street on the Upper East Side.—S.G.
