400 Madison Avenue: Ask for it by name.

Walk past 400 Madison Avenue, Macklowe Properties' newly repositioned property, and you won't see the same property William Macklowe took over in 1998.

Today, the building looks terrific: a block-long footprint, a chiseled facade and a duplex penthouse (With a For-Rent sign on it!) that the tower wears like a tiara.

But the 400 Madison that Macklowe pulled out of bankruptcy three years ago would have been called a fixer-upper if you were being kind and a mess if you were being honest.

"It was a building that was a period-piece, but it was from the wrong period," Macklowe said June 6 from the comfort of one of the building's newly re-fabbed conference rooms. "It was in receivership and had suffered for years at the hands of absentee-ownership. It was a third-rate property in a first-rate location... It had no mechanicals, and the elevators, windows and facade all needed work. Everything needed work or needed to be replaced, in fact. And the tenants were paying, on average, $25 a foot.

"The building was tired. I think that describes it best."

400 Madison's immense presence in that first-rate location also hid a dirty secret: The building is terribly shallow. While it dominates Madison Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets, turn the corner and the building isn't much wider than the Starbucks that occupies one of its ground-floor retail spaces. The 22 floors only offer about 200,000 SF. So even after Macklowe gutted and rewired it, it clearly couldn't compete as a signature HQ-type property.

What to do...

"We own a lot of buildings," Macklowe understated, "and we looked at some other properties in the area, like our property at 540 Madison, to see what the market was looking for. And what we saw was a huge demand for smaller, pre-built space."

And thus an idea was born.

"Space has gotten so expensive, so we looked for what we could give to the tenant that they couldn't necessarily find somewhere else," he said. "Sometimes it's the little things. We extended the air conditioning schedule a month at each end and expanded the cooling hours each day for free. That goes a long way to remediate occupancy costs for the tenant.

"I've always admired the Seagram Building, which is also dominated by smaller tenants," he said. "So we decided 400 Madison could be an executive building like that, offering smaller spaces. The concept is for 400 Madison to be a life-style building, like a co-op. for bigger companies who only happen to need a littie space. We even offer an appropriately attired building attendant who greets you with, 'Good morning, Mr. Blank.' My man Paul here, [Paul Gordon, the building's manager] is my ambassador to the tenants, and he works his tail off.

"And the result of that," Macklowe said, beaming, "is a lot of repeat business from the brokers and good word-of-mouth from the tenants. Nintendo just signed on. Why? Because they can take 2,000 SF and be treated as if they leased 200,000."

The pre-built strategy also means that Macklowe was only on the hook for one big renovation and could give the opportunity to each tenant a chance to become an important part of the building's portrait.

And, it turned out, the narrow step of the building was found to be a plus.

"Actually, we figured out that the width of the building is a tremendous advantage," said Jeffrey Bernstein, a managing director at Insignia/ESG and the building's lead leasing agent. "The window-to-area ratio is very high and there are very few columns: almost the entire building is supported by beams. And at this size nobody's front door is too far from the elevator."

One might call it the Pre-Built Stilt, but Bernstein calls it "My favorite building" for what it's doing for Insignia's bottom line. Since 400 Madison's repositioning in November, Bernstein said his office has brokered 38 new leases there. With its location and the elimination of often deal-breaking construction issues, he said he has had little problem leasing space in the base of the building in the $60+ per SF range. It doesn't hurt that across the street from the main entrance to 400 Madison is the northernmost entrance to Grand Central Terminal, giving the well-to-do tenants who come in from Westchester and Connecticut what Bernstein called "a no-coat commute."

There is also the matter of natural light, which nearly everyone who works in the building gets to enjoy. The building is designed so that on each floor the elevator opens to a hallway that runs parallel to Madison. Most of the spaces on a particular floor will also run parallel, with individual offices adjacent to the windows with glass walls separating the offices from the workflow travel space. Those glass walls allow the natural light from the east to spill through employees' offices into the travel space.

Then there is the penthouse, which is still being revamped and is the subject of some intense bidding. Interestingly, Adlai Stevenson once kept an office there when he was ambassador to the United Nations, and after the renovation the new occupant will have access to the original working fireplace, more than 6,000 SF of space and two outdoor terraces. Peering east off the south terrace offers a unique view of the historic Pepsi sign at Queens West. Look south a bit and you'll see workers patching up the midsection of the new Bear Stearns tower across the street. Look straight down and you may see your lunch. It's pretty high.

"We've gotten three more offers on it in the last week," Bernstein said. "Three offers from international firms who would all be great tenants. But we're holding the line on the price; Macklowe thinks, and I agree, that we can get at least $20 per SF above the rest of the building... It's my professional opinion that the space will be leased within the next 30 days." He added that it would be ready for occupancy within four months.

As for the rest of the tower, "We were fortunate in that we were able to be flexible with the leases we gave," Macklowe said. "We offered three, five, seven or 10-year commitments -- because we know a 10-year commitment can be daunting -- and that way we stagger the vacancies."

And Macklowe and Bernstein both credited the building's success in part to the branding process. Advertising for the property that has appeared in Real Estate Weekly and elsewhere features a red-ish "400 Madison" and the Macklowe logo with web address and nothing else. The facade wears flags announcing the address. The lobby bears a logo between the first set of elevators. And a writing tablet lifted from the conference room says "400 Madison Conference Center" across the top of each page.

"The branding has two purposes: it creates a public identity for Macklowe and it creates an image in people's mind about the property," said Bernstein. "The advertising strategy has been: Hit them with the logo, then show them the web address, www.400madison.com. There you can find floor plans and pricing schedules 24-hours a day."

Quite unfortunately for the Real Estate Weekly's of the world, the red-hot leasing streak at 400 Madison has, Bernstein admitted, "Diminished the need to advertise."

But 400 Madison only become Bernstein's "favorite building" after months of hard work and with the cooperation of the landlord, he said.

"Billy Macklowe has held a weekly meeting with the brokerage team, the construction team, the architects, the managers; everyone, eve week for the last 18 months without fail. He insists everyone be there," he said. "This project has been like a ship, and everyone was involved. We discussed the infrastructure, the air conditioning, the windows, the wiring. Everything was taken care of and everybody was on the same page.

"That's the kind of landlord love."