NEW YORK CITY
Convene, a developer of meeting and event spaces, is partnering with RXR Realty and Walton Street Capital, co-owners of 237 Park Avenue, to open a new venue just steps away from Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.
The project, which opens as RXR nears completion on $50 million in renovations to 237 Park Avenue and its iconic, expansive atrium, aims to become home to Manhattan’s most high-profile meetings and events; it is slated for launch in early 2016.
Convene at 237 Park Avenue will aim to bring a new look and feel to the Convene brand, with a new Industrial Chic look that combines the best of Park Avenue, Brooklyn and Paris. With just a little edge and a lot of refined sophistication, this new design and gamut of amenities aims to host occasions that seek Park Avenue character with the convenience of a centrally located, full-service, purposeful-built venue.
“The Park Avenue, Grand Central area is home to the highest concentration of Fortune 500 firms in the world but has been facing matrixed competition from submarkets like Park Avenue South, Wall Street and Brooklyn as well as new and renovated developments like Hudson Yards, World Trade Center and Brookfield Place,” says Ryan Simonetti, Convene’s co-founder and CEO. “The RXR – Convene collaboration at 237 Park understands and delivers what tenants and their millennial users look for in workplaces and is indicative of larger market trends toward centralization of services within buildings."
One unique amenity to Convene 237 Park Avenue will be The Club, a ’private space within an already private space’ that incorporates features not typically found in midtown office buildings like a library with a gas fireplace and pivot doors, a private cocktail lounge and gallery space.
The venue’s conference and collaboration area features seven meeting rooms with capacity of up to 150 persons. All rooms are powered by Convene’s signature service platform which integrates technology, food and beverage and hospitality. The property also introduces several new innovations that were created through a collaborative design process where meeting and event organizers ideated and sketched features that only they could have known needed to be developed. Specialized planning stations for badging and event administration were designed and located outside of the meeting rooms while adjacent looking glass windows keep planners visibly connected with the flow of their programs.
Special tenant-only features and perks will be extended throughout the building including on-premises catering, on-demand workspace and meeting room solutions and exclusive tenant events.
The new lease comes as RXR is close to completing its renovations to the building. The extensive work includes newly constructed entrances on 45th and 46th Streets, enhanced visibility on Park Avenue, a new lobby and redesigned atrium, enhanced retail throughout the first two levels of the building; and a completely re-imagined plaza on Depew Place (between 237 and 230 Park Avenue, which RXR also owns) with new restaurant opportunities and outdoor seating.
Convene’s 11-year lease agreement between Convene and RXR Realty includes 29,800 square feet space situated on the lobby level of the inner atrium. Its new “industrial chic” design, created in collaboration with Unispace Architects, will combine the best of uptown and downtown into a vibrant, eclectic mix that speaks to enterprises across all industry types.
Upon completion, Convene’s six locations will total over 180,000 square feet and already serve more than 75 percent of New York City’s Fortune 500. The company opened its first center outside New York City in Tysons Corner, Va., in April, 2014 serving the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region and has plans for continued expansion within the region. Convene at 237 Park is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2016.
