BY GREG CORNFIELD July 27, 2020 9:00 AM

Marx Realty was founded more than 100 years ago, and it has been thriving since Craig Deitelzweig took over as president and CEO in 2017.

Marx has been repositioning iconic office properties on the East Coast with its signature “hospitality-infused” designs. In 2019, Marx completed a $48 million renovation of 10 Grand Central in Midtown Manhattan, with a new lobby, entrance, amenity space and other features to the 438,000-square-foot building to give it a 1930s vibe.

The renovation won BOMA’s Renovated Building of the Year award, and pushed rents up by $30 per square foot. Marx signed over 193,000 square feet of leases since the announcement of the repositioning, bringing occupancy up to 94 percent. One example came in March, when Rubric Capital moved to 10 Grand with a seven-year lease at $88 per square foot. New and existing tenants also include MassMutual, Benenson Capital Partners, the Association of National Advertisers, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions.

Marx is in the process of a $20 million renovation with similar upgrades at the 140,000-square-foot 545 Madison, which will be complete by the end of 2020. In January, Strike Technologies expanded its lease at 545 Madison up to 25,000 square feet.

Marx is also expanding its signature redesigns in other markets. In April, at the height of shelter-in-place orders, Marx acquired The Herald Building, a 114,000-square-foot office in Washington, D.C., for $41 million. Marx plans to spend another $41 million on renovations starting in October. It is scheduled to be complete by spring 2021.

Deitelzweig said Marx is advancing its health-and-wellness focus since the pandemic hit. The firm has further developed Marx Connect, an app for touchless interactions with building systems. It also gives social distance “alerts,” temperature screenings, and more. It will become increasingly important in encouraging employees to return to the office.

“We’ve always been focused on health and wellness, so we really ramped that up now across our portfolio,” Deitelzweig said. “You now have UV lights in all of our buildings, we have ionization systems, sanitation stations and antimicrobial materials.”

The firm also took over management for the 1.15 million-square-foot Cross County Shopping Center this year, and will reposition it. Deitelzweig also expects to make more acquisitions this year.

“We’re looking at office products in New York, D.C. and Atlanta,” he said. “This quarter is going to be slow, but probably by the fourth quarter and quarter one [of 2021], we definitely intend to make acquisitions.”—G.C.

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