NEW YORK CITY
Just two months after opening its latest conference center in New York’s downtown financial district, Convene (www.convene.com) announced plans to add a fourth location–101 Park Avenue–to its growing network of off-site meeting venues.
The 20,000-square-foot lease, issued by HJ Kalikow & Co, is part of Convene’s move toward retail locations and establishes its new standard brand for all future sites. Convene is New York City’s largest off-site corporate conference center provider and hopes the expansion will continue to grow its brand’s presence in the city.
“From the inception of our business in 2009, we have focused on creating a new category of conference center by reimagining how service and design could be combined to improve the meeting experience,” said Christopher Kelly, principal and co-founder of Convene. “Through our human-centered design process, we developed 24 principles which were the criteria for the design and will be implemented in their entirety for the first time at Convene 101 Park.”
Convene is partnering with the Gensler design firm to design a “kit of parts” to implement the group’s signature brand at this and future locations, including custom-designed furniture, fixtures, technology, food and beverage offerings, signage and branding.
101 Park Avenue, completed in 1982, is a 49-floor, 629-foot skyscraper with a building frontage that sits catty-cornered facing Park Avenue and E. 40th Street in midtown Manhattan. The building contains 1.3 million square feet of space and its tenants include Kelley Drye & Warren; Federal Home Loan Bank of New York; Tiger Management; Tata Consultancy Services; Morgan Stanley; Nespresso USA; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; and Booz & Company.
“We were particular and strategic in our tenant selection for this coveted space,” said Peter Kalikow, president of H.J. Kalikow. “We found Convene’s professional use and reputation to be an ideal fit for the building.”
