Empire State Realty Trust President Steps Down

Image courtesy of JaxsonD via Wikimedia Commons

The New York-based REIT that owns the famed Empire State Building is changing up its leadership.

Current Empire State Realty Trust President & Chief Operating Officer John Kessler will step down from his role “in an orderly transition” while current CEO & Chairman Anthony Malkin, grandson of the founder of the company, will take over as president, according to a company press release.

Kessler joined ESRT in 2015 as president & COO. Previously, he was a managing director at Fortress Investment Group and spent several years in different capacities at Morgan Stanley Real Estate.

READ ALSO: How Safe Office Reopening Strategies Are Reshaping Leases

In his absence, the role of COO will not be filled, according to an SEC filing. The leadership change comes on the heels of ESRT recently appointing a new EVP & CFO, Christina Chiu, and a new SVP & CIO, Aaron Ratner.

Malkin was quoted in a New York Times story last month about office and retail rent collections, saying that more than a quarter of its office tenants and more than half of its retail tenants did not pay April rent.

The company’s office and retail portfolio consists of more than 10 million square feet across the tri-state area. Last week, Ernst & Young renewed its lease at First Stamford Place, Empire State Realty Trust’s 794,623-square-foot office campus in Stamford, Conn.