00:00Five years ago, Michelin star chef Danielle Boulou made a big bet with New York City's largest office landlord in
00:06the depths of the COVID pandemic.
00:09Boulou's Dinex Group and SL Green Realty opened Le Pavilion.
00:13I'm sure I'm pronouncing that wrong, but fortunately, Danielle is here.
00:17In one Vanderbilt Avenue next to Grand Central Terminal as restaurants around the city were closing in droves.
00:24And some of the most famous restaurants you've ever heard of went out of business.
00:28The Four Seasons is gone.
00:30Now their partnership has expanded to three premier locations in luxury buildings here to talk about hospitality and really this
00:36revival in real estate and dining.
00:39It's Dinex Group owner, chef Danielle Boulou and SL Green Realty CEO Mark Holliday.
00:44It's great to have you guys here with me on set.
00:47And it's great to have you in New York.
00:49I mean, we witnessed, I think, with COVID, almost the end of an era for Wall Street people that grew
00:54up reading about the Four Seasons and the Oak Room and Le Cirque.
00:57You know, that's all ancient history now.
01:00And you're bringing a new generation of New Yorkers a place to eat.
01:08And you'll talk to me about that revival.
01:09Absolutely. And I think COVID seems so far away. And yet, in the last five years, we have done so
01:16much.
01:16And together, in collaboration and partnership with SL Green and Mark, commitment to bring something excellent to his tenant, to
01:26really bring service to his tenant, to bring something fantastic for New York as well.
01:31And so we opened the pavillon five years ago. And since then, we have done also amenities.
01:37We have done events floor at One Vanderbilt on 72nd floor summit.
01:42The summit opened. I mean, so many, so much happened.
01:46Georgie opened at One Vanderbilt.
01:48Then, Mark, you worked on OMA, One Madison, and we opened an amazing steakhouse there.
01:54So we were working all along the way, revitalizing our company, but also having access to the portfolio of SL
02:07Green development.
02:08Which makes sense to have one of the best chefs in the world working with one of the best real
02:12estate portfolios in the world.
02:13I mean, I've been going through your properties, Mark, because we talked with Tom Gilbane a couple weeks ago, who
02:19works with you on 100 Park Avenue.
02:22And, I mean, they're just marquee properties that you've got.
02:27And it's fantastic to be in your position as people come back to work.
02:31Like, nobody even talks about RTO anymore.
02:32It's just normal again to be working from your office.
02:37Yeah, that conversation is in the past.
02:40I mean, right now, I would say the office leasing market is as good as I've ever seen it in
02:45my, you know, almost 35-year career in New York City.
02:49It is, it's amazing.
02:51And the business has transformed from what we used to do is just provide space.
02:56We were, it was a real estate business.
02:58We were providers of commercial office space.
03:01And now we are firmly in the hospitality industry.
03:05It has been a game changer for companies like us and buildings like we own to be able to collaborate
03:12with this man who I wish I met, you know, 35 years ago because the journey has been so good.
03:19And we've been able to extrapolate not just the great restaurants that you mentioned, but all of our amenity spaces,
03:27event spaces, catering for tenants, a piece of reason, the retail spaces.
03:32And now it just elevates the whole game.
03:34We have a 20-person hospitality group at SL Green.
03:38Ten years ago, I had zero.
03:39And it's the difference between what office owners deliver as a baseline and what we need to deliver to get
03:46the kind of rents we charge, $100, $200, sometimes $300 a foot of rent.
03:51So, I mean, my takeaway from those two statements is you're doing a lot more than real estate and you're
03:58doing a lot more than just restaurants, right?
04:00I mean, you have to really expand and you have been so successful because of that.
04:04Hospitality, yeah.
04:05And we expanded around the world, but within New York City, I mean, I was talking about One Madison, this
04:12new building, and Mark insisted to make sure that we create a world-class restaurant.
04:18We created a steakhouse that is really exceptional, but also a rooftop for the tenant, a rooftop that New York
04:27have never seen for a tenant in a building.
04:29And the rooftop become also an amenity to be able to do event space.
04:35It's called Le Jardin sur Madison, and it's an indoor-outdoor event space that there's no matching in New York.
04:42How much does it help to have Danielle in your properties?
04:45I mean, if you're running a big business, I imagine if you want a flashy office, it's not just the
04:52address, but you have Boulou there as well.
04:55It must be hugely attractive.
04:56Yeah, I got to be careful because I bring Danielle now on my sales pitches when I'm out there soliciting
05:02tenants because New Yorkers love their food.
05:05And it's sometimes the difference maker when people need to come to the office.
05:11Employers need ways to differentiate for retention and recruitment.
05:16And those ways are when people feel like I can get to the building easily, the building is high design,
05:22it's happy, it's fresh, it's sustainable, it's got very good security, which in today's world is always high up there
05:29on the list.
05:29And then it has world-class amenities that are serviced, not by office people, but by, you know, one of
05:36the greatest hospitality and culinary organizations in the world.
05:41And so it's almost like an unfair advantage.
05:44And we've become also a destination.
05:47So it's a village within the building.
05:49The staff knows the employees that live and work in the building.
05:53But also the local buildings around like to go there because they know the quality of service we offer.
06:03And, you know, with the pavilion or with the Georgie box, for example, we have a retail of sushi.
06:11That is crazy.
06:12It's a little boutique underground by Grand Central.
06:18It's just like so many offices come to just pick up their lunch there.
06:23By the way, how closely connected are you, Danielle, to Wall Street?
06:27Because when I read the classic deal literature, Barbarians at the Gate, Buyer's Poker, Predator's Ball, restaurants feature very prominently
06:36in these books about deals.
06:38Like, do you have big deals getting done in your restaurants and you know about them before we do?
06:41We do have big deals, especially in private events space, but also in one-on-one.
06:50We know our customer.
06:52We know what the privacy is the most and discretion is the most important thing in hospitality.
06:59But at the same time, we want to make sure the guests can count on us for making their deal.
07:05That's for sure.
07:06Mark, when you are putting up a building, do you build it on spec or do you only start construction
07:14once you have tenants in, once you have, you know, a name that's enough to drive more people to come?
07:22I mean, an office name besides a restaurant name.
07:24I mean, how does that work out?
07:25Well, you know, the rules of the road for large-scale development is typically you want an anchored tenant.
07:31We tend to build on spec.
07:33If we have an irreplaceable location and a great plan, we have enough conviction and confidence in this market that
07:41we go forward.
07:42A great example is 346 Madison.
07:44I don't know if you saw.
07:45We had an announcement yesterday.
07:47We just recapitalized that deal, brought in a 49% partner from Tokyo, the Mori Building Company, who is the
07:55premier urban landscape developer in Tokyo.
07:58We're going to collaborate on an 850,000-square-foot skyscraper right catty-corner to one Vanderbilt.
08:06It's going to have all the same kind of features, high design, amenities, but, you know, we're going to take
08:13it one step beyond with wellness, fitness, an international standard Padel Court, which will be the first one in Midtown.
08:20Padel?
08:21Yeah, we're going to put Padel in there.
08:22A step beyond pickleball.
08:23It's not, you know, it's a little tricky.
08:24I like it.
08:25High ceilings and, you know, we're going to have it not below grade but, you know, right in the heart
08:31of the building.
08:32You know, nap pods, simulators.
08:36I mean, I can't tell you, one, what you have to do today, but, two, the fun it is to
08:41create these things that compel people to want to come in as opposed to stay at home.
08:47346 Madison is kind of going to be that next generation of office building.
08:50We begin demolition in August, and the building will be complete in 2031.
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