United Nations Changing Addresses

The United Nations building along the East River in Turtle Bay is going to be undergoing significant rehabilitation and renovations to major systems. A significant number of workers will be moving to a nearby office tower, to help facilitation renovations:

The United Nations is moving at least 700 employees and 180,000 square feet of office space to 305 East 36th Street, according to a report in Real Estate Weekly.

A spokesman for the UN confirmed to Real Estate Weekly that the move will begin next year, as the famed UN Building undergoes an extensive renovation. The renovation of the building should last through 2015.

The UN employees will move into a 79-year-old building known as the Albano Building, which is just off Second Avenue and only blocks from its regular home. The UN's new home is a drab Class B building that needs an upgrade. The UN will foot the entire bill for all renovations.

The spokesman said it hasn't been determined which offices will move and which will stay during the six-year renovation. A source told Real Estate Weekly the rents for its new home will be under $50 per square foot, an inexpensive option during a time when Manhattan office rents are at all-time highs.

The price tag is not entirely clear, but the US pays a signficant portion of the UN budget, though the costs may be close to the budgeted amount because the UN is not taking Class A space.

This renovation project has ballooned in costs from when it was first proposed. The building needs upgrades to heating, air conditioning, electrical, and telecommunications systems, along with asbestos removal. The renovations and work will include:

The renovation of the UN headquarters will begin with the construction of a new conference building, a roughly 100,000 s/f temporary structure to be built on the campus’s green lawn to the west of the Secretariat Building. That structure will provide facilities for the General Assembly while the governing body’s normal meeting space is renovated. The work is scheduled to begin next year, with construction on the Secretariat Building to start soon after. Rumors have circulated in the Manhattan construction industry that a deal is close with the construction company Skanska to carry out the work.

The UN solicited bids from construction firms months ago but according to Schmidt only received three responses, an indication of not only how few companies there are that can tackle a project of such scope and complexity but also of how thinly stretched both the city’s construction industry and the supply of materials and equipment has become amid the current building boom in Manhattan.