By John Koblin | The New York Times
Over the last four years, the Lamb’s Club has evolved into the Condé Nast canteen. On any given afternoon, you might spot Anna Wintour holding court at her corner table, dining with the CBS chief executive Les Moonves, Tory Burch or Tommy Hilfiger. Nearby, you might find the W editor Stefano Tonchi exchanging a quick handshake with Jason Wu or Michael Kors on his way out. Condé Nast publishers, editors and executives work the dining room every day and bring in as much as “20 percent of our daily breakfast and lunch business,” said David Rabin, an owner of the restaurant on 44th Street.
As the Bon Appétit editor Adam Rapoport said, “That dining room is very much a Condé Nast lunchroom.”
But with Condé Nast’s impending move to the World Trade Center, just how will this scene be replicated in the dreary wilderness that is the Financial District? Easy: Midtown businesses that Condé Nast editors and publishers depend on every day are looking to head south.
“I would say it’s a mission of mine to get down there,” Mr. Rabin said. “Immediately, as soon as we heard it, we started thinking, ‘How could we do this?’ ”
In the last few months, restaurants, blow bars and major fashion labels have been angling for new homes near the World Trade Center, and largely for one reason. Between November and February 2015, about 2,300 Condé Nast employees will be migrating to open floor plans at 1 World Trade Center.
Those couple of thousand employees will have pages to fill and expense accounts to use. And these businesses want in. “With Condé Nast going down there, it’s a game changer,” said Nadine Abramcyk, a co-owner of the upscale nail salon Tenoverten. “To be close to all those employees would be amazing. You want to be, like, the first mover.”
Ms. Abramcyk was initially delighted when she heard about the move. She had a salon in TriBeCa, about a 15-minute walk from 1 World Trade Center. But then she thought about it some more and realized something: That’s not walkable in heels.
“The truth is, we’re too far,” she said, adding that Condé Nast represents a significant portion of her business. “They’re not going to leave to go out for a manicure in TriBeCa,” she said. “You really need to be eight or 10 blocks farther south.”
She said she was looking for space and that she was “90 percent confident” that the salon would have something close to the World Trade Center by the time Condé Nast moves downtown.
The John Barrett hair salon is even further along in the process. The salon, which has space at Bergdorf Goodman, has a fully executed letter of intent to open up “about 50 paces from the elevators of Condé Nast,” said Jim Hedges, the chief executive of John Barrett Holdings. (The precise number of steps is really important to him; he cited it several times in an interview.) The two have a close relationship: The salon prepared about 40 Vogue staffers for this year’s Met gala.
“We’ve been called the house salon of Condé Nast and are very, very committed to supporting that relationship,” Mr. Hedges said. “When we had the opportunity to serve that community in an even closer way than we already do, we jumped at it.”
Mr. Hedges may find some competition.
“It’s fair to say we have quite a few Condé Nast clients,” said Alli Webb, the founder of Drybar, laughing. “Those girls love blowouts probably more than anybody.”
Ms. Webb said Drybar was closing in on a space very close to 1 World Trade Center, and, if all goes according to plan, would be moved in by early next year. And just how important is Condé Nast to her business? She said that her client database contained more than 400 unique @condenast.com email addresses.
Some businesses are moving even closer to the publisher. Pascal Dangin’s fashion advertising agency, KiDS, will be taking 35,000 square feet on the 87th floor at 1 World Trade Center. (Condé Nast will occupy floors 20 to 44.) Mr. Dangin, whose clients include Vera Wang, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen, said he had wanted to move into the tower for some time but the fact that he’ll share the building with Condé Nast was a “reinforcement that this was the right place to be.”
He added, “It’ll make the elevator ride a bit more pleasant.”
Condé Nast will not be the only publisher heading down there. Time Inc., which publishes InStyle, People and Entertainment Weekly, will relocate its headquarters next year to Brookfield Place, across the street from Condé Nast. Other media companies moving downtown include HarperCollins, The Village Voice and The Daily News. In the beauty world, Revlon announced that it would relocate its New York offices next year from Midtown to 1 New York Plaza, at the tip of Manhattan.
Fashion brands are flooding the retail market downtown as well, focusing primarily on two rival spaces. There’s Brookfield Place, facing the south and west sides of 1 World Trade Center; and Westfield Properties, which will have retail outlets at the Oculus, a transportation hub and shopping center that will open next year, and at 2, 3 and 4 World Trade Center.
Brookfield Properties has already signed labels like Hermès, Diane von Furstenberg, J. Crew, Burberry, Theory, Ermenegildo Zegna and Salvatore Ferragamo. The developer has also signed Equinox and is reportedly in negotiations with Saks. Westfield has made no announcements about retail stores but is in talks with Michael Kors, John Varvatos and MAC, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations.
Downtown retail real estate brokers, who have spent the better part of the last decade trying to convince would-be tenants that a revitalization was right around the corner, are finding their jobs much easier now.
“Condé Nast was a huge catalyst in the transformation and perception of downtown,” said Ed Hogan, Brookfield’s national director of retail leasing. “It was pretty much a financial services market before. There’s diversification now, and that made the overall retail market more attractive to a larger audience.”
Last Wednesday, Ms. Wintour and more than a dozen Vogue staff members got a good look at the Oculus at a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund event. They were two stories below street level, surrounded by police officers and men in hard hats. It was all very much unfinished. Greeting them at the entrance of the site was an orange spray-painted sign resting on a concrete slab that read “LASER IN USE.”
It’s an impressive space, but there are some concerns about the new retail outlets in the area.
“I hope it’s not going to look like the Time Warner building,” said Mr. Tonchi, the editor of W, referring to the mall-like appearance of the Columbus Circle shopping center. Others share that sentiment.
“We were approached by Brookfield Place, but that didn’t seem like the right fit for us,” Ms. Abramcyk said. “You want to maintain the character of your business, and that seemed sort of mall-ish.”
Authenticity remains important to Condé Nast editors. Mr. Tonchi said he wanted to find an old Wall Street bar. Mr. Rapoport of Bon Appétit said he wanted to find an old bar, too, something equivalent to Jimmy’s Corner, on 44th Street.
“The shopping I’m not worried about, the shopping is covered,” said the Architectural Digest editor Margaret Russell, laughing. Her top needs? A good diner, a place to get flowers and a good wine store because, she said, the commute is about to become a bit more complicated.
Which means that eating locally will be a priority, too.
“There needs to be not one but probably three media cafeterias,” said the Glamour editor Cindi Leive.
Mr. Rabin of the Lamb’s Club said he was searching for space down there because his restaurant is “going to feel something of a void as they move out.”
This possibility seems be the most welcome news to Condé Nast editors.
“I’d be very happy to have the Richard’s soup and roasted cauliflower travel downtown,” Ms. Leive said, referring to two favorite Lamb’s Club dishes. (Mr. Rabin, who is also a partner in the Skylark, Jimmy and Bar Nana, said the restaurant downtown would likely go by a different name.)
But what Condé Nast employees really want is company. It’s fun being a pioneer, up to a point.
“I’m happy to hear we’re not going to be alone,” Mr. Tonchi said.
