Rockrose Offers A Highly Amenitized Project To Help Revitalize The Midtown South Office Market

As companies embrace a more office-heavy hybrid work scenario, employers are searching for buildings that offer more amenities to enhance employees’ day-to-day experience in the office.

Rockrose Development is a New York-based real estate development firm with decades of experience in upgrading office spaces. The company has started construction on its latest office redevelopment in New York City. The project, which will be known as 11 East 26th St., envisions combining 15 East 26th St. and 11 East 26th St. into one highly amenitized 420K SF office complex directly overlooking Madison Square Park.

Rockrose’s Ted Traum said that, as the owner of 15 East 26th St. since 2014 and 11 East 26th St. since 2021, Rockrose recognized the tremendous opportunity to connect and add amenities to these two buildings.

“Given the unique parkfront location in one of the most sought-after live-work-play neighborhoods in the world, we understood that this project would allow us to create the amenities and experiences that tenants currently demand,” he said.

The new 11 East 26th will offer hospitality-level amenities, including a private parkfront tenant club featuring a full bar, multiple seating and collaboration areas, and whiskey and wine storage for tenants’ private collections. Adjoining the club is a 5K SF fitness center featuring private and group workout areas, spa-level locker rooms and treatment rooms. The club floor will be managed by a tenant concierge and offer exclusive dining options to tenants.

Other amenities will include a conference and entertainment center with operable glass walls connecting to the tenants' roof deck. The rooftop provides 360-degree views of Madison Square Park and landmarks such as the Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, Flatiron Building and original MetLife Building.

“Following the pandemic, the office leasing market is experiencing extremely nuanced demand, where tenants are almost exclusively focused on renovated, highly amenitized office buildings in prime locations,” Traum said. “This phenomenon is further impacted by employers’ need to offer enhanced working environments to entice employees to return to the office.”

Traum said that the office market has been segmented into an environment of winners and losers. 

“The winners — the ones that can offer highly desirable, renovated and amenitized spaces — are experiencing a tremendous amount of leasing demand, while the projects that don't offer those amenities and attributes are struggling to lease,” he said. 

Traum said Rockrose is confident that 11 East 26th meets the criteria for highly amenitized office spaces and that the success of the complex will be further buoyed by the diverse range of floor sizes and availabilities it can offer. 

Tenants can lease a 19K rentable SF floor plate in the east building, a 12K SF floor plate in the west building or a combined 31K SF floor plate across both buildings.

“This combined floor size is a rarity for boutique buildings in Midtown South, and we can offer four of them contiguously for a block of 125K RSF,” Traum said. “With a total of 250K RSF available across the complex, we can be extremely flexible in accommodating tenants of different sizes.”

Projects such as this not only help employees feel excited to come back into the office but also allow a more purposeful space that keeps wellness and collaboration in mind, Traum said. As a result, employees will have a more positive and engaging in-person experience, something that was largely missing in the office market prior to the shift to more amenitized spaces.

Traum said that 11 East 26th has already fielded significant interest from prospective tenants and has signed two leases across both buildings totaling 85K SF. 

“We have received extraordinary interest in the project from new and existing tenants,” he said. “Rents in the complex have increased 30% compared to before the pandemic, as a direct result of the renovation and spectacular amenity offerings.”

Traum said he believes in the future of the NYC office market and is extremely confident that Rockrose will continue to adapt to tenants’ needs. 

“Rockrose has always been an industry leader in pioneering office amenities,” he said. “As the office market and tenant demand evolve, we are excited to continue innovating and developing projects that make tenants and their employees excited to be in the office.” 

This article was produced in collaboration between Studio B and Rockrose. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

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