Jonathan L. Mechanic and Melanie Meyers

Working on huge New York City commercial real estate developments is nothing new for Fried Frank’s Jonathan Mechanic and Melanie Meyers, but the last year has seen significant and particularly exciting progress toward the completion of some of those projects.

Mechanic cited the duo’s work on a joint venture at 350 Park Avenue as an example of the complex land-use work they often undertake. In this instance, it involved bringing the Vornado Realty Trust and Rudin Management supertall to completion. “Representing Citadel to lease 852,000 square feet, and helping [Citadel CEO] Ken Griffin, Vornado and Rudin to collectively build that 1.7 million-square-foot building is a fascinating transaction,” Mechanic said. “It reinforces New York City as the financial center of the world — and, certainly for us, it was a complicated deal.”

Mechanic and Meyers’ work extends beyond the glittering office towers of Midtown Manhattan.

“It is a difficult time right now, but we have been working with clients to figure out how to get residential projects moving forward,” said Meyers. “There’s an extraordinary need for housing, and the government regulations haven’t made it that easy to do, but we’ve been working this week getting entitlements for the Gotham Organization and the Christian Cultural Center for a 2,500- to 2,000-unit development in East New York that will rely on a mixture of public funding, as well as private equity, to get that going forward.

“We are also finishing up the final stages of some of the long-term projects that we’ve worked on over the years, including Greenpoint Landing,” Meyers added. “We’re working on getting the last batch of entitlements, which, when that’s done, we’ll end up with 10 residential buildings, about 5,500 units of housing and a completely transformed waterfront.”

In addition, Mechanic said that they are representing a joint venture between developers Park Tower Group and Rockefeller Group on a residential building at 16 Dupont Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

“When you walk Greenpoint, which is its own neighborhood and spectacular, the notion that we play such an important role in connection with that is obviously very rewarding,” said Mechanic.