Hitting a high note
JSM Music moves to Midtown penthouse
JSM Music, regarded by many as the world’s pre-eminent commercial-music production studio, is leaving a 7,200 square-foot space downtown for a 10,500 square-foot penthouse near Times Square. Although small in size, the just-signed deal punches high above its weight class in symbolism, creative relevance and emotion.
JSM — winner of innumerable Grammys, Clios and other industry honors — produced the music for seven of this year’s Super Bowl commercials, including WPP Agency Wunderman Thompson’s ad for Hellmann’s mayonnaise with Jon Hamm and Brie Larson.
It’s widely said that creative and media firms don’t need to have as many employees in offices as do financial and law firms. Don’t the creatives get antsy if they’re not working from home, where they connect with bosses and colleagues between health-food snacks and dog walks?
But listen to JSM founder and CEO Joel Simon on the indispensability of in-person, face-to-face collaboration in the field of which he’s a master:
“Everything I loved about Zoom at the beginning of the pandemic is everything I hate right now,” Simon said. “Instead of having a normal conversation, or ‘hey, just come over and let’s talk,’ everything was about a presentation.
“Bringing in all our outside talent and having clients on the site could not come soon enough for me. It’s so important to be together and share ideas.
“That is where the magic happens. To make something out of nothing. You never know when the brilliance is going to hit you. There is no substitute.”
JSM moved to 30 Broad St. about six years ago. His team enthusiastically returned to the studio “even before the city said it was OK,” Simon recalled. But it recently became time for a change when jackhammering from exterior facade work provided a less than ideal backdrop for creating and recording commercial music.
When Simon posted photos of the recent JSM move-out on social media, “People asked me, ‘OMG — are you going remote? You’ll save so much money!’ ” Or, “‘Are you moving to Miami?’ ” he recalled with a laugh.
No, he explained. They were going to Midtown, a few steps from Broadway’s bright lights and the city’s most fabled entertainment district.
A JLL team led by Brett Harvey and Zachary Azus represented
JSM Music in the lease. Landlord APF Properties was repped by Avison Young’s John Ryan III and Rachel Rosenfeld. Neither Simon nor the brokers would discuss lease terms, but a source said the asking rent was in the mid-$70s per square foot.
JSM will use its new uptown digs for commercial-music composition, recording, production, post-production and sound design.
The penthouse boasts 20-foot-high ceilings and large outdoor terraces, but the neighborhood’s appeal was just as strong. Simon’s staff of
30 were excited to be in what he calls “the heart of Manhattan.” The block between Fifth and Sixth avenues is lined with trendy restaurants, hotels and clubs, but Simon has an unlikely particular favorite.
“I love diners,” he said. “There wasn’t a good one near our old studio. When I came up here, the first thing I went to look at was the diner across the street.”
That’s the ever-popular Red Flame at 67 W. 44th — which happens to be Realty Check’s favorite as well.
Fitness mecca
Even in a year of sluggish largescale leasing activity, landlords are pressing ahead with meaningful capital upgrades to their properties and new nonoffice tenants to fill the post-pandemic era’s needs. At George Comfort & Sons’ 200 Madison Ave. between East 35th and 36th Streets, the next arrival will be a new flagship home for TMPL. The fitness mecca “dedicated to the rituals that elevate your entire well-being,” it boasts, will set up in 26,000 square feet on the ground floor and in the basement, its sixth location in Manhattan.
The ground-floor asking rent was $100 per square foot.
Comfort, which is partners at the address with Jamestown and Loeb Partners, has managed the stately, 750,000-square-foot, 1925vintage tower for more than 50 years. It’s working with architectural/design firm Vocon on a $20 million repositioning that also includes a redesigned entrance, a brightened Madison Avenue lobby and an 11,000-square-foot, 10th-floor amenities center.
The new lobby will take some cues from the building’s second, north-south lobby, which runs between 35th and 36th streets — not that it can be replicated. The magnificent, neo-Renaissance-style space with polished marble walls, terrazzo floors and gilded plaster ceilings was designated as a rare interior landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2021.
The tower is 92% leased to tenants including Havas Health,
Spectorgroup, Greater N.Y. Mutual Insurance and philanthropic agency Surdna Foundation. Office asking rents are in the lowmid $70s per square foot.
George Comfort CEO Peter S. Duncan commented, “We are pleased that our street-level renovations have succeeded in drawing an exciting fitness brand like TMPL to 200 Madison.”
The landlord was repped inhouse by Duncan, Matt Coudert and Andrew Conrad. TMPL was repped by Cushman & Wakefield’s Neil Seth, Kenji Ota, Kathryn Cruz and Jennifer Konefsky.
Doubling down
Elegantly appointed Rocco’s Steakhouse has drawn lovers of prime beef and Italian-accented veal and chicken to 72 Madison Ave. for nearly 10 years. Now it’s adding a second location at 100 E. 57th St., the former home of the original BLT Steak, which closed a few months ago. Rocco’s signed a lease for 3,500 square feet on the ground, 1,350 square feet on the lower level and 600 square feet on a mezzanine for a private dining room.
CBRE’s Jared Lack and Andrew Goldberg acted for the landlord, the Dorchester co-op apartment building. Colliers’ David Tricarico and Christel Engel repped the tenant. The asking rent was $200 per square foot on the ground, which Lack called “a very fair number” today, although “definitely less than prices were 10 years ago.”
He said that when the venue became available, he and Goldberg found that it immediately drew interest “from a who’s who” of major restaurateurs.
The new Rocco’s will probably have close to 175 seats, including in the private room. Rocco Trotta and GM Pete Pjetrovic are partners in the venture.