Seminar focuses on bringing new life to older buildings.

With the award-winning 350 Hudson Street serving as a textbook example of renovation in the 1990s, the recent "This Old Building" seminar sponsored by The Building Owners' and Managers' Association of Greater New York, Inc. (BOMA/-NY) ushered leaders of the real estate community through the step-by-step process of a total building upgrade.

The seminar attracted approximately 100 professionals representing New York's top property owners, managers, architects, engineers and related service companies. Owned and managed by Trinity Real Estate, 350 Hudson underwent a dramatic and comprehensive capital improvement program converting the 270,000 square-foot, light-industrialbuilding into a modern office environment. It is now 100 percent leased and is credited with launching the revitalization and market repositioning of the historic Hudson Square area.

Pioneering a Diverse Tenant Base

Walter F. Spardel, Managing Director of Commercial Real Estate for the Parish of Trinity Church, explained the long-term planning behind the 350 Hudson project, which began in the early 1980s. "We took a look at the real estate market, realized a change was coming and that diversification of the tenant base was an absolute must," Spardel said. The Hudson Square properties were primarily used for printing and light manufacturing, but during that period the "pioneering" idea was gaining momentum and businesses such as advertising were beginning to relocate to the area.

According to Spardel, 350 Hudson had several built-in advantages, including a solid location, full-block front, large windows, centercore design, a very low loss factor and Art Deco design. Despite all this he noted "We knew it would require a complete and absolute gut job. Our wish list contained everything from a new skin, to new high-speed elevators, much larger lobby, new window systems, electrical system... you name it."

One difficulty cited by Spardel was Trinity's requirement that a base tenant be signed before work could start. The answer came in the form of advertising agency Della Femina Travisano, but closing the deal required adding a 16,000 square-foot penthouse, along with other stipulations. Despite these early hurdles, the capital improvements plan was successful; the building was completely leased within two years and has remained so, becoming one of Trinity's most profitable properties.

What Goes Where?

Explaining the project's design challenge was Lee Harris Pomeroy, FAIA, of Lee Harris Pomeroy Associates/Architects. "We did not want to bring Midtown Downtown," he told the audience. Instead they opted to "use what there was on hand," while "embracing the market opportunity." The team achieved this by restoring and enhancing 350 Hudson's raw industrial look. The building gained a pink granite base with coated exterior, as well as shops with large glass windows for added pedestrian interest. The Art Deco decoration and mosaics were cleaned.

"We started with were six freight elevators and two staircases, and some rather tortured bathrooms," said Pomeroy, "but all set in the middle of this great big space, allowing an extraordinary opportunity for a very efficient plan." He explained that three passenger elevators were slipped into the space of two freight; bathrooms were brought up to ADA standards, and some of the mechanical shafts were used for vertical distribution of utilities. ML Pomeroy also introduced the audience to the penthouse work and ground floor redesign, the later requiring a new, wider entrance, the addition of VIP parking and a new side-street entrance.

Code compliance, filing and approval were handled by Joseph De Chiara of Marlo and De Chiara/Architects, who outlined problems that were faced, including the long lapse of time between project conception in the mid-80s to final Certificate of Occupancy in 1993, and the delicacies of zoning ordinance and code compliance in light of the change of building use and the penthouse addition.

He cautioned that when dealing with old buildings, special consideration must be paid to such questions as antiquated sprinkler and fire alarm systems, outmoded fire safety plans, lack of ADA compliance mixed-use labor and factory laws, and restrictions on first floor public assemble. "You do run into some problems with mixed-use because you have old codes to comply with," advised De Chiara. "You have the old labor laws... the factory laws in effect on those floors that are not changed over." De Chiara said that the phasing of work was also important because, "during this (construction) time there is no legal occupancy... You've got to cover yourself for liability problems while all this is going on.

Keeping It Simple

The podium was then handed to Salvatore Limoggio of S. M. Limoggio & Associates for the engineering portion of the program. According to Limoggio, they were "determined to upgrade the old building at an affordable price," and achieved it by keeping things simple.

He described 3SO Hudson as "relatively smooth sailing," but with a number of logistical challenges. "We were told we had to keep the existing electrical service intact at the same time as installing new service," he explained, "and we could never shut down the heating - ever. Of course, we had to the elevators running."

"Keeping it simple" meant using the simplest of pre-packaged air conditioning units replacing the domestic hot water system with individual electric heaters in each bathroom, and buying both the operational windows and architectural grills from the same manufacturer. "Each floor was done as the tenant moved out," Limoggio said. The 50-year-old boiler was replaced in summer to avoid downtime and a bus bar with riser was installed and tapped off, which allowed for individually metered electricity. "Our aim throughout was to leave behind a better building," he said.

Putting It Together

Explaining the construction management role, Joseph Minutella, president of JDK Group, Inc., said "Our first responsibility was to shield Trinity's assets... by protecting from surprises, counseling about potential problems and coordinating the final outcome." He then broke the construction process down into three phases: design, construction award and construction.

During the schematic design phase, it was necessary to take into consideration the financial restraints of the project, and the construction timetable limitations, including special equipment and personnel requirements. Then vendors' intput was added to the equation. Minutella emphasized that for this final element the pre-qualification of bids is critical, stating "After that, the pricing becomes simple."

Wrapping up the seminar, Ed Dinicola, Director of Commercial Building Management for Trinity Real Estate, advised on tenant and team relations. He recommended twice-a-week, face-to-face meetings with tenants to coordinate all jobs, and advised writing down everything by keeping job minutes. He went on to warn about addressing problems as soon as they happen, saying "If you don't face the problems head on, they grow and grow and grow."

"The thing I learned," he stressed, "was how important the building staff is... these people are the first line of defense. Train them properly, show them you know how hard they're working, and they'll go that extra step - they'll handle that tenant problem before you get that phone call."

He urged the audience to "plan the project in advance, without rose-colored glasses... realistic timing is a must. If you plan it giving everything the `best case' scenario, I think you're just asking for trouble. Sit down beforehand and have everyone list everything that can go wrong. Than at least have a contingency plan."

The program ended with a question-and-answer answer session, and a walk-through of 350 Hudson.