Leslie Himmel and Stephen Meringoff
Leslie Himmel and Stephen Meringoff
Managing Partners at Himmel + Meringoff
Last year's rank: 92
In May 2019, Himmel + Meringoff announced it had acquired a two-story, 305,000-square-foot industrial property at 1601 Bronxdale Avenue in the Bronx’s Van Nest area with financier Square Mile Capital Management. The move was part of what the privately held company described as a push into the outer boroughs.
The firm that Leslie Himmel and Stephen Meringoff launched in 1985 is best known for redeveloping and/or repositioning top-shelf Manhattan office properties. Himmel and Meringoff’s firm, for instance, was one of the first major New York landlords to work in a big way with one-time coworking hegemon WeWork, inking a 19-year, 180,000-square-foot lease with the company at 1460 Broadway, which Himmel + Meringoff owns with the Swig Company.
The company more recently repositioned the approximately 500,000-square-foot 525 West 57th Street to appeal to life sciences companies—a growing part of the Manhattan office sector. Tenants already include the International Multiple Sclerosis Management Practice and LabCorp, which re-upped in July 2019 for 15,000 square feet.
The more recent Bronx move, though, is indicative of the company’s expanding purview. It’s been a presence in Long Island City, Queens, for three decades, but not much beyond that in terms of the boroughs. “This deal represents the launch of a new active acquisition program for H+M,” Himmel and Meringoff said in a statement at the time of the Bronx deal, which is also designed to capitalize on e-commerce operators’ demand for warehousing space in and around New York City.
Otherwise, the Manhattan-based company continues to manage and to lease up its portfolio of several dozen properties totaling approximately 2.5 million square feet. (Its affiliated Meringoff Properties handles the management.) For instance, in July, the firm signed a 12-year renewal with Hill Country barbecue for 10,990 square feet at its 30 West 26th Street in Manhattan’s NoMad.
Himmel + Meringoff did face a grim reckoning in December, when falling masonry from its 729 Seventh Avenue fatally struck Erica Tishman, an architect. The city had earlier fined the company for failing to properly maintain the building’s exterior. “We remain devastated by this tragic accident, and our hearts go out to the family,” Himmel + Meringoff said in a statement.—T.A.
