A Swedish switch
Group plans to take Vir tu Financial Midtown space
Led by the dynamic Anna
Throne-Holst, the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce in New York is completing a deal to move to the full, 18,294-squarefoot 29th floor of Paramount Group’s 900 Third Ave.
Sources say the belowmarket, four-year sublease from Virtu Financial includes furniture, and the modern open plan has Central Park views.
The location will become its offices and a physical gateway for a new SACCNY platform to enhance its support of Swedish firms that want to expand or seek a foothold in America. According to its Web site, the offices will also provide members with low-cost space for networking, meetups, conference and events for all things Swedish.
Throne-Holst, the former Southampton Supervisor who lost the congressional race against Rep. Lee Zel
din in 2016, was hired as the SACCNY president in March 2017.
Founded in 1906, the group includes major companies like Skanska, Volvo and SAS as well as individuals. But so far, sources said, Stockholm-based music behemoth Spotify hasn’t joined the booster club.
The active Chamber also hosts events and major conferences around the world to support techies and startups, sustainability and women.
Nicholas Gilman, Gordon Ogden and Caxton Kaback of Byrnam Wood represented the SACCNY in the sublease and is market- ing its current 3,580 square feet at 570 Lexington Ave. Byrnam Wood declined comment. Virtu was represented by
Michael Lenchner of Sage Realty along with the JLL team of Cynthia Wasser
berger and Kristen Morgan, who either couldn’t be reached or declined comment.
Virtu, a high-speed trading company, completed a $1.4 billion acquisition of KCG Holdings in July 2017 and moved into its much larger offices at 300 Vesey St., aka One North End Ave.
The global design and architecture consultants, CallisonRTKL, will move to the entire 16th floor of The Woolworth Building.
The company has leased 28,096 square feet for 10 years at the 60-story landmark property, which has an official address of 233 Broadway, where it will relocate from two floors at 148 Lafayette St.
CallisonRTKL was represented by Mitchell Kon
sker and David Dusek of JLL. The Cammeby’s International/Witkoff group ownership was represented by Brian Siegel, David Ofman and Thomas Hettler of The Lawrence Group. The asking rent is $57.50 per square foot.
Earlier this month, CRTKL, which designs for Nordstrom among others, was ranked as the No. 1 retail design firm for the second year in a row by Visual Merchandising and Store Design magazine.
The top 30 floors of the landmarked Woolworth Building are being converted to stunning, large condominium apartments by Ken Horn of Alchemy Properties. Its topmost pinnacle, with 9,563 square feet over eight floors, is still available for about $110 million.
It sits prominently across from City Hall Park, and its Ushaped floors provide lots of light. Designed by Cass Gilbert, the Gothic Revival skyscraper was the tallest building in the world when it opened in 1913. The Trump Building at 40 Wall St. passed it by in 1930.
Ever wonder why Bryant Park and Union Square are junkie-free, but not always Washington Square Park?
That’s because New York University, which owns most of the buildings surrounding the park, has a love/hate relationship with the community.
In the early 1980s, junkies and the homeless were splayed all over and sandboxes were filled with cigarette butts, glass and worse.
Today, things have changed — but not by much. As The Post recently reported, crackpipes are now busting out all over.
Yet the similarly — and maybe worse back then — junkie-infested Union Square Park and Bryant Park are now infested with millennials and food markets.
The other city parks were able to clean up their acts because the business and real estate communities were so appalled at the state of the city that they banded together, and with the blessing of Mayor Rudy Giu
liani and City Council legislation, they formed Business Improvement Districts.
When the city wanted to renovate Washington Square Park in 2005, neighbors filed lawsuits and held up the redesign for several years.
After the renovations were completed in 2009, the Coalition for a Better Washington Square Park wanted to hire morel security officers to keep drug addicts out, but the city nixed that proposal.
Rather than a BID, which would involve support from the adjacent property owners — read NYU — the neighborhood formed The Washington Square Park Conservancy. With a 2015 budget of $265,000, it supports the City’s Parks Department by providing some horticulture, maintenance and grants to support cultural programs — not security — although it works closely with the local NYPD precinct.
NYU, with an overall school endowment in 2017 of $4.1 billion, made a onetime $500,000 contribution, said Dr. Gil Horowitz, a retired NYU professor and neighborhood activist.
“We think they could give a lot more,” he confided to The Post.
NYU does contribute “generously” to the free park concerts, but Horowitz added, “We don’t want them getting too much control. We welcome their help as long as it doesn’t come with, it’s their park.”
Horowitz praised the Conservancy’s executive director, George Vellonakis, who designed the park. “He is doing a credible job at keeping the park safe, clean and green,” Horowitz said.
And Horowitz, who is in the park almost daily, says that while drug dealers had been defiant, with police cameras everywhere, they now stick to their corners. “You don’t see them shouting, “coke,” just “smoke,” he explained.