While many developers are turning the large, former automotive showrooms on the Far West Side into office space, Taconic Investment Partners and Nuveen Real Estate have decided to transform one such building into lab space for life sciences firms, which have thrived in the midst of an economy shattered by the pandemic.

The property was, until recently, part of the Disney-owned ABC campus on the Upper West Side. Taconic and Nuveen purchased the seven-story building at 125 West End Avenue and two other adjacent sites for $230 million last year. ABC will continue to use the Art Deco industrial building as television studios until it moves downtown in January 2021.

When construction starts early next year, the building will be completely reclad in a glass and aluminum curtain wall system that allows it to become much more energy efficient. The facade work will involve removing the existing brick windowsills and enlarging the windows, so they are floor-to-ceiling.

Removing the interior windowsills and radiators also give the developers more rentable office and lab space on each floor. The exterior columns will be clad in a painted aluminum that is creased, in order to give the appearance of movement as the sun reflects off of them at different times of day, according to architect Matthew Malone of Perkins&Will, who is overseeing the project.

“We couldn’t wholesale change the building’s structure,” Malone said. “The overclad [facade] does this thing of repositioning the building as a completely new building on the marketplace, and it allows us to improve the building’s energy performance.”

The 1930s property was originally constructed as a showroom and body shop for Chrysler. Like many of its Albert Kahn-designed neighbors to the south, the building includes a massive, interior helix-shaped ramp, which begins at street level and continues up through each floor to the roof. While the street-level remnant of the ramp will be removed, the rest of it will remain. The architects plan to convert it to a series of small conference areas, libraries and cafe spaces, depending on what tenants want.

The architects have also teamed up with engineers at JB&B to develop energy-efficient heating and cooling systems for the building. That includes water-chilled air conditioning with chiller towers on the roof, and an energy-recovery system that captures the heat from the cooling towers and condensers and uses it to heat the building. The new HVAC system will also bring in new outside air several times an hour, something sure to appeal to lab and office tenants post-COVID.

The new mechanical core will also include destination dispatch elevators, which the architects hope to link to a touchless entry system.

An amenity floor in the basement will have a conference center, bike storage, lockers and showers.

Taconic plans to convert the building into 50 percent office space and 50 percent lab space. And with 54,000-square-foot floor plates, tenants will have the option to intermingle or separate labs and offices as they see fit.

“Our vision for the building is that it’s a significant enough asset that we could replicate the various stages of the life science ecosystem within it, for anchor tenants that need 100,000 square feet, and for smaller tenants that need step-up space between 12,000 and 25,000 square feet,” Nate Bliss, a Vice President at Taconic, said.

With COVID’s lethal second surge prompting more questions than ever about the future of the workplace, it’s instructive to note the pace of new office building construction has never faltered throughout the health and economic crisis. Nowhere is that more evident than in New York City, where from Midtown to Hudson Yards, Hudson Square and the Lower East Side, construction workers have continued to build office buildings, COVID or no.

Common to the new offices under construction are pandemic-era touches, including entirely customized and flexible HVAC systems, destination dispatch elevation, no-touch technology and other health and safety features intended to provide a sense of security. As well, many of these complexes’ settings appeal to folks who can walk or bike in from the same or nearby enclaves. All extras are intended to make tenants and office staff more comfortable with returns to the office.

“There is no question the office market is challenging right now,” says Matthew Weir, senior vice president, commercial asset management with Taconic Partners, among the developers of the two-building Lower East Side development Essex Crossing.

“The pandemic has shifted tenants’ perspectives, priorities and standards. It is going to be important for landlords to adapt to, and embrace, change and innovation. Office tenants’ pre-COVID preference for large, social experiences have shifted toward more exclusive environments as employers focus on health and safety. In addition, live-work-play neighborhoods, which have always appealed to tenants, have taken on a different context amid the pandemic, with some looking to avoid mass transit.”

Different submarkets

Among the new office buildings is Two Manhattan West, Brookfield’s new 2-million-square-foot office development, with Cravath the anchor tenant. It’s part of the 7-milllion-square-foot, master-planned development in the new Hudson Yards district.

Another example is 660 Fifth Avenue, also from Brookfield. A 1.4-million-square-foot office redevelopment in the Plaza District, it is the most significant redevelopment on Fifth Avenue to be undertaken this century. In a nod to pandemic-era sensibilities, tenants can choose between DX units and DOAS systems.

Yet another is 550 Washington Street, an Oxford Properties 1.3-million-square-foot office building featuring re-developed floors at the base, topped by new construction. Situated in the Hudson Square submarket featuring dramatic Hudson River views, the building was leased in its entirety last year by Google as part of its mushrooming West Side campus.

Entirely self-contained

Among the most high-profile office developments and, given COVID’s challenges, most nimble, is Essex Crossing. Located in the heart of the Lower East Side, one of New York City’s most fabled and distinctive enclaves, Essex Crossing is an entirely self-contained 1.9-million-square-foot campus providing the kind of unique and adaptable space many experts believe will be highly sought during and after COVID-19. The offices feature sprawling floorplates, outdoor terraces, open green space and direct walking and/or biking access to and from some of New York City’s most popular Millennial neighborhoods.

The expansive floor plates extend from 35,000 to 52,000 square feet in size, allowing flexibility and customization. A low-rise five-story building features private lobbies and elevator banks to permit maximum control of the environment.

State-of-the-art, tenant-controlled HVAC systems can accommodate use of ultraviolet light to thwart coil-borne and/or airborne mold, bacteria and germs. Upgraded cleaning specs ensure offices are maintained to the highest cleanliness standards.

In-office bike storage with showers and lockers and direct access to 13 on-campus Citibike stations will let office workers bike in five minutes from East Village, Nolita, Solo, Noho and Chinatown, eight minutes from Greenwich Village, Hudson Square and Tribeca and 11 minutes from such Brooklyn nooks as Dumbo and Williamsburg.

“The New York City office market is certainly evolving,” Weir says. “The Essex Crossing Offices are a prime opportunity for companies to create their new office norm, to continue to attract and retain the right talent.”