JEMB Leases Store at Manhattan’s Herald Center to Verizon Wireless

By Gail Kalinoski, Contributing Editor

JEMB Realty continues leasing up its revitalized Herald Center, a 10-story, 250,000-square-foot retail and office property at 34^th Street and Broadway, with Verizon Wireless taking 4,500 square feet for its new flagship Manhattan store on the ground floor.

“Herald Center has become the destination retail location we first envisioned when we acquired the property nearly three decades ago,” Joseph Jerome, JEMB’s president, said in a release.

JEMB acquired the building in 1986. In recent years it began renovations to increase and showcase retail tenants. The property is being completely reclad. Black glass panels on the first three floors were replaced with transparent panes and floors 4 to 10 are being transformed with LED panels to create a light display to engage passersby.

Renovations are expected to be completed in the spring. Verizon Wireless should move in about the same time, according to Tom Citron, executive managing director, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank Retail, who represented Verizon Wireless along with Robert Gibson of JLL in the deal. Bobby Dweck represented JEMB.

Tom Citron, NGKF Retail

“In less than three years since JEMB unveiled plans to completely renovate and reconfigure the asset, we have moved ASA College into the upper floors, creating a new 160,000 square-foot campus with its own entrance. We leased 63,000 square feet of prime ground floor space to fashion retailer H&M in August, and filled the remaining ground floor space with this new lease to Verizon Wireless,” Dweck said in the release.

Dweck said 12,000 square feet of lower level retail space will be ready to be marketed in the spring.

Citron said Verizon Wireless was looking to leave its current space at 134 W. 34^th St. because the lease was expiring and the company wanted to be closer to Herald Square.

“This is an opportune location to be able to enhance their presence there by having 50 feet of frontage with an all new glass façade,” he told Commercial Property Executive. “This opportunity was unparalleled compared to anything we were able to look at on that street.”

Citron noted that the subway stop closest to Herald Center is one of the top five busiest subway stops in New York City and the 34^th Street corridor and Broadway has active, heavy foot traffic.

“It was very important that Verizon maintain a presence in that corridor,” he added.

“The stunning redevelopment of our retail space over the past three years has created a tremendous opportunity for retailers to capture a remarkable audience and take command of one of the greatest locations in the nation,” Jerome concluded.

With H&M taking 63,000 square feet at Herald Center for its flagship store in New York City, the intersection now features H&M on one corner, Macy’s on another and Victoria’s Secret and the Gap on two others.

JEMB, headquartered in Manhattan, is an owner, developer and manager that acquires, upgrades and repositions commercial, retail and residential properties in city business districts. With its subsidiary BUSAC Real Estate in Montreal, JEMB owns and operates more than 7.2 million square feet of commercial space in North America.