The Brill Building at 1619 Broadway is only half-filled, but Allied Partners’ Eric Hadar is looking to pump in $50 million or more into the office landmark with the goal of snagging top tenants like Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington and the other entertainers who used to live there, the New York Times reported.
Allied paid $185 million for the 11-story tower in February, after The Real Deal reported last fall that Invesco wanted to bring the 177,00-square-foot building to market. Hadar told the Times he would look at tapping into the building’s storied past as a mecca for show business.
“I would like to get a premium in rents by developing a building that’s exciting because of the people who are in there,” he said.
To that end, he is in talks with the Songwriters Hall of Fame — to establish a small museum in the property, where once songwriters would look to make contact with bigwig music publishers and entertainers.
“It’s like the physical manifestation of the Songwriters Hall of Fame,” Jimmy Webb, the chairman of the songwriters’ organization, told the Times. [NYT] — Hiten Samtani