A Reimagination of Rockefeller Center Delivers a Trendy Midtown Experience
At a time of heightened office market challenges, Tishman Speyer, the owners of the iconic Rockefeller Center realized that changes were needed to “draw New Yorkers to Midtown for more than just the Monday-to-Friday workweek.” The nearing lease expiration of auction house Christie’s nearly 400,000-square-foot U.S. headquarters within the Center further heightened discussions of the changes needed to shift the tone of the complex from the “stigma that’s attached to being part of that Midtown machine” so that they could “attract hip eateries that could keep office workers around for drinks and dinner,” as well as a mix of retailers that would add a blend of the flavor of both Midtown South and Downtown submarkets. Along with the hired help of hospitality advisory firm Friend of Chef, some of the new eateries that have been added to Rockefeller Center’s roster include Le Rock at Rockefeller, a high-end French concept by the team behind Frenchette, a successful Tribeca restaurant; Jupiter, a new Italian venue by the team behind the SoHo restaurant King; and the upscale Peeble Bar, by the New York City-based Authentic Hospitality group mostly known for its downtown spots. Leasing activity among retailers has added SoHo-based independent bookstore McNally Jackson; direct-to-consumer fashion brand Hill House Home; Catbird; a “Gen Z-friendly” jewelry store with New York City locations in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and SoHo; and Rough Trade, a “record store known as an anticorporate purveyor of vinyl,” that relocated from its previous “more on-brand neighborhood of Williamsburg.” Additional changes at Rockefeller Center will bring the first hotel to the complex. Set to open in 2026 above NBC’s “Today Show” studios, the 130-key Little Nell Hotel is “an offshoot of a luxury hotel in Aspen, Colorado. While the “work-from-home movement” is still a drag on the area’s local businesses, the Center is seeing an uptick in activity. Further validating the success of the reimagination efforts, along with decisions to “invest millions of dollars into a redevelopment of the Rockefeller Center campus,” was decisions by Christie’s, a tenant at the Center since 1999, to extend its lease for another 25-years.