515 Madison Ave. goes for LEED Certification with renovated space

A fully restored lobby and newly renovated office space recently were featured at an open house luncheon at 515 Madison Ave. (at 53rd St.). Eric Gural, executive managing director of Newmark Knight Frank, who represents the 42-story building, reports that several new tenants have recently leased space at 515 Madison, but that space is still available - including four tower floors. The building, including two pre-built floors is expected to garner LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. "We extended the building's lobby further out toward the street, by about 40 feet, and restored the decorative ceiling so that it looks just as it did when the building was completed in 1932. We even got the new marble from the same quarry from which the original marble was taken," Gural said. Gural hopes that the building will receive a Silver LEED-EB (Existing Building) certification. The 13th and 14th floors of 515 Madison have been built out to specifications calculated to win a Silver LEED-CI (Commercial Interiors) designation. Five tenants have recently leased space at 515 Madison: one existing tenant that is expanding into new space, plus four newcomers. Kreab & Gavin Anderson Worldwide, a global marketing company, is expanding its presence in the building to 9,132 s/f. New tenants include Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (22,300 s/f), the March of Dimes (8,600 s/f), Lepol Realty Corp., a development company (3,792 s/f), and Hamilton Investment Funds, an investment firm (1,900 s/f).