Hilton leases Met Tower floors for new timeshare sales center.

In what is considered the "kickoff" to a major repositioning of one of Manhattan's iconic mixed-use buildings--the 78-story Metropolitan Tower, an ultra-sleek black glass office and condominium residence at 142 West 57th Street--owner L&L Holding Company, LLC has announced that Hilton Hotels Corp. has leased 15,590 s/f of prime ground level and second floor space to house a sales and marketing center for its first Manhattan timeshare property presently under construction nearby.

The lease is the first signed at Metropolitan Tower since Ann Taylor moved its corporate headquarters to 7 Times Square last year, and in the process, helped create a rare and valuable 150,000 s/f block of available space at the tony 57th Street building, which opened in 1986.

"That was the impetus to up grade Metropolitan Tower in a dramatic fashion and reposition it for either a prestigious single or multi-floor space users," stated L&L CEO David W. Levinson, who felt it was important to kick-start the leasing program by attracting an exciting, high-profile retail-type tenant for the lower portion of the building.

To accomplish that, Levinson, and his partner at L&L Holding Company, Robert Lapidus, came up with an unusual marketing idea. They temporarily removed a dozen of the black silicon glazed glass panels from the second floor of Metropolitan Tower to create dramatic visual evidence of the spectacular 57th street corridor views a potential showroom/retail tenant would have from that vantage point.

The strategy worked. Hilton loved the space, which is in close proximity to its 28-story timeshare hotel property now under construction at 104 West 57th Street, and plans to open its sales and marketing center for Hilton Grand Vacations Club in March.

John Brod, Mort Schrader and Devon Binns of PBS Realty represented the landlord in the leasing transaction, while Hilton was represented by Fred Rudd of The Rudd Group. Now that they have attracted a high-profile retail tenant and generated significantly more rental income than would have been possible had the second floor been leased to a traditional office user, Levinson and Lapidus have reinstalled the 12 exterior glass panels and begun focusing on Phase Two of the repositioning plan--a dramatically revamped lobby together with a new look for the building's front entranceway.

L&L Holding, in partnership with Blackrock Realty Partners, purchased Metropolitan Tower for $170 million from a partnership comprised of Principal Global Financial Advisors and L&L, which had acquired the property in April, 2005 for $120 million.