The Condé Nast Entourage Heads to 1 World Trade Center
Over the last four years, the Lamb’s Club has evolved into the Condé Nast
canteen. On any given afternoon, you might spot Anna Wintour holding
court at her corner table, dining with the CBS chief executive Les
Moonves, Tory Burch or Tommy Hilfiger. Nearby, you might find the W
editor Stefano Tonchi exchanging a quick handshake with Jason Wu or
Michael Kors on his way out. Condé Nast publishers, editors and
executives work the dining room every day and bring in as much as “20
percent of our daily breakfast and lunch business,” said David Rabin, an
owner of the restaurant on 44th Street.
As the Bon Appétit editor Adam Rapoport said, “That dining room is very much a Condé Nast lunchroom.”
But
with Condé Nast’s impending move to the World Trade Center, just how
will this scene be replicated in the dreary wilderness that is the
Financial District? Easy: Midtown businesses that Condé Nast editors and
publishers depend on every day are looking to head south.
In
the last few months, restaurants, blow bars and major fashion labels
have been angling for new homes near the World Trade Center, and largely
for one reason. Between November and February 2015, about 2,300 Condé
Nast employees will be migrating to open floor plans at 1 World Trade Center.
Those
couple of thousand employees will have pages to fill and expense
accounts to use. And these businesses want in. “With Condé Nast going
down there, it’s a game changer,” said Nadine Abramcyk, a co-owner of
the upscale nail salon Tenoverten. “To be close to all those employees
would be amazing. You want to be, like, the first mover.”
Ms.
Abramcyk was initially delighted when she heard about the move. She had
a salon in TriBeCa, about a 15-minute walk from 1 World Trade Center.
But then she thought about it some more and realized something: That’s
not walkable in heels.
“The
truth is, we’re too far,” she said, adding that Condé Nast represents a
significant portion of her business. “They’re not going to leave to go
out for a manicure in TriBeCa,” she said. “You really need to be eight
or 10 blocks farther south.”
She
said she was looking for space and that she was “90 percent confident”
that the salon would have something close to the World Trade Center by
the time Condé Nast moves downtown.
The
John Barrett hair salon is even further along in the process. The
salon, which has space at Bergdorf Goodman, has a fully executed letter
of intent to open up “about 50 paces from the elevators of Condé Nast,”
said Jim Hedges, the chief executive of John Barrett Holdings. (The
precise number of steps is really important to him; he cited it several
times in an interview.) The two have a close relationship: The salon
prepared about 40 Vogue staffers for this year’s Met gala.
“We’ve
been called the house salon of Condé Nast and are very, very committed
to supporting that relationship,” Mr. Hedges said. “When we had the
opportunity to serve that community in an even closer way than we
already do, we jumped at it.”
Mr. Hedges may find some competition.
“It’s
fair to say we have quite a few Condé Nast clients,” said Alli Webb,
the founder of Drybar, laughing. “Those girls love blowouts probably
more than anybody.”
Ms.
Webb said Drybar was closing in on a space very close to 1 World Trade
Center, and, if all goes according to plan, would be moved in by early
next year. And just how important is Condé Nast to her business?
Some
businesses are moving even closer to the publisher. Pascal Dangin’s
fashion advertising agency, KiDS, will be taking 35,000 square feet on
the 87th floor at 1 World Trade Center. (Condé Nast will occupy floors
20 to 44.) Mr. Dangin, whose clients include Vera Wang, Balenciaga and
Alexander McQueen, said he had wanted to move into the tower for some
time but the fact that he’ll share the building with Condé Nast was a
“reinforcement that this was the right place to be.”
He added, “It’ll make the elevator ride a bit more pleasant.”
Condé
Nast will not be the only publisher heading down there. Time Inc.,
which publishes InStyle, People and Entertainment Weekly, will relocate
its headquarters next year to Brookfield Place, across the street from
Condé Nast. Other media companies moving downtown include HarperCollins,
The Village Voice and The Daily News. In the beauty world, Revlon
announced that it would relocate its New York offices next year from
Midtown to 1 New York Plaza, at the tip of Manhattan.
Fashion
brands are flooding the retail market downtown as well, focusing
primarily on two rival spaces. There’s Brookfield Place, facing the
south and west sides of 1 World Trade Center; and Westfield World Trade
Center, which will have retail outlets at the Oculus, a transportation
hub and shopping center that will open next year, and at 2, 3 and 4
World Trade Center.
Brookfield
Properties has already signed labels like Hermès, Diane von
Furstenberg, J. Crew, Burberry, Theory, Ermenegildo Zegna and Salvatore
Ferragamo. The developer has also signed Equinox and is reportedly in
negotiations with Saks. Westfield has made no announcements about retail
stores but is in talks with Michael Kors, John Varvatos and MAC,
according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations.
Downtown
retail real estate brokers, who have spent the better part of the last
decade trying to convince would-be tenants that a revitalization was
right around the corner, are finding their jobs much easier now.
“Condé
Nast was a huge catalyst in the transformation and perception of
downtown,” said Ed Hogan, Brookfield’s national director of retail
leasing. “It was pretty much a financial services market before. There’s
diversification now, and that made the overall retail market more
attractive to a larger audience.”
Last
Wednesday, Ms. Wintour and more than a dozen Vogue staff members got a
good look at the Oculus at a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund event. They were
two stories below street level, surrounded by police officers and men in
hard hats. It was all very much unfinished. Greeting them at the
entrance of the site was an orange spray-painted sign resting on a
concrete slab that read “LASER IN USE.”
It’s an impressive space, but there are some concerns about the new retail outlets in the area.
“I
hope it’s not going to look like the Time Warner building,” said Mr.
Tonchi, the editor of W, referring to the mall-like appearance of the
Columbus Circle shopping center. Others share that sentiment.
“We
were approached by Brookfield Place, but that didn’t seem like the
right fit for us,” Ms. Abramcyk said. “You want to maintain the
character of your business, and that seemed sort of mall-ish.”
Authenticity
remains important to Condé Nast editors. Mr. Tonchi said he wanted to
find an old Wall Street bar. Mr. Rapoport of Bon Appétit said he wanted
to find an old bar, too, something equivalent to Jimmy’s Corner, on 44th
Street.
“The
shopping I’m not worried about, the shopping is covered,” said the
Architectural Digest editor Margaret Russell, laughing. Her top needs? A
good diner, a place to get flowers and a good wine store because, she
said, the commute is about to become a bit more complicated.
Which means that eating locally will be a priority, too.
“There needs to be not one but probably three media cafeterias,” said the Glamour editor Cindi Leive.
Mr.
Rabin of the Lamb’s Club said he was searching for space down there
because his restaurant is “going to feel something of a void as they
move out.”
This possibility seems be the most welcome news to Condé Nast editors.
“I’d
be very happy to have the Richard’s soup and roasted cauliflower travel
downtown,” Ms. Leive said, referring to two favorite Lamb’s Club
dishes. (Mr. Rabin, who is also a partner in the Skylark, Jimmy and Bar
Nana, said the restaurant downtown would likely go by a different name.)
But what Condé Nast employees really want is company. It’s fun being a pioneer, up to a point.
“I’m happy to hear we’re not going to be alone,” Mr. Tonchi said.
