Leslie Wohlman Himmel and Stephen Meringoff

Himmel + Meringoff’s life sciences and industrial investments have started to pay off.

While the firm primarily owns office buildings in New York City, it purchased a mixed-use, 300,000-square-foot industrial site in the Bronx at 1601 Bronxdale Avenue in 2019 for $89 million. Amid an office market slowdown, that property accounted for the firm’s largest lease renewal of 2022, when auto parts distributor Parts Authority decided to keep its 152,386-square-foot lease.

In Manhattan, Himmel + Meringoff closed a deal for Mount Sinai Hospital to take 50,500 square feet for a new dermatology lab and urology department at the firm’s 10-story 525 West 57th Street, World Property Journal reported. 

The duo held onto the space for two years to score a reliable tenant, and with Mount Sinai taking a 30-year lease, the strategy paid off, Meringoff said. 

“Steve and I are very conservative investors and long-term thinkers in business, particularly financially, and we really didn’t want to put in venture-backed life science or biotech companies, not knowing [who] makes it to the end of their lease,” Himmel said. “And so we held out for a credit company, and that is Mount Sinai.”

Overall, Himmel + Meringoff completed 514,616 square feet of leases in 2022 with government, industrial, life sciences and other tenants, according to the firm. And Himmel + Meringoff managed to kick off 2023 with a nice office transaction: public relations firm Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis inked a deal in January to relocate its headquarters to 6 East 32nd Street in NoMad.

While Meringoff didn’t sugarcoat the challenges facing the office market, he offered some advice for firms on surviving an economic slowdown: “stay alive.” 

“Every cycle like this that Leslie and I have seen, some people don’t come out the other side. People disappear,” Meringoff said. “Keep your A game in place, stay with the fundamentals, and make sure that you come out the other side of the downturn.”