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Since RFR Holding acquired 375 Park Ave., its leasing and management division has overseen more than $20 million in renovations. Perhaps that's one reason why this 1950s' classic can command the highest rents on Park Avenue.
The search is on for one big tenant to re-christen one of Manhattan's best-loved office buildings: 375 Park Ave., also known as the Seagram Building. The 38-story skyscraper is one of the most admired by architects of any of the city's landmark office towers. Completed in 1958 to mark the 100th anniversary of distiller and beverage distributor Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, the bronze-and-glass tower is perhaps the premier example of the International Style of building design, an outgrowth of the German Bauhaus School. Designed by architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson, it was the first building of significant size to feature floor-to-ceiling windows, which many of its current tenants cite as one of the property's most compelling features. And as its ownership completes a major renovation and interior redesign of the classic nearly 50 years later, Johnson has agreed to serve as a consultant on the redesign of the building's corridors and bathrooms.
This continuity and the building's close association with the architectural history of New York City are just two of the reasons why both property owner RFR Holding LLC and its tenants express a love for 375 Park that few other buildings anywhere in the world can command.
"The Bronfmans [the family that controls Seagram] treated this building as a member of their family, and we feel the same way about it," says Richard Farley, senior vice president and director of leasing for RFR Realty LLC. Farley's firm, RFR Realty, manages the portfolio of RFR Holding LLC, the owner of 375 Park.
"It's an architectural gem," adds Aby Rosen, a principal with RFR Holding, who says occupancy increased from 91% to 95% since his company acquired the property. "People are drawn to it. It's held up very well because it was maintained very well. And it's appreciated now more than ever because people are rediscovering postwar modernism," he shares.
Steven A. Seiden, president of the executive search consulting firm Seiden Krieger Associates and a 20-year tenant of the building, expresses a...