Leonard Grunstein Represents the Paramount Building

The Paramount Building is a 33-story office tower located at 1501 Broadway, between West 43rd and 44th streets in Manhattan’s Times Square. The building was developed by Adolph Zuckor in 1926 as Paramount Pictures’ East Coast headquarters at a cost of more than $13.5 million.

Zuckor, who was the founder and chairman of the motion picture studio, hired Chicago-based architecture firm Rapp & Rapp to design the project. The firm, headed by brothers Cornelius and George Rapp, specialized in theater design and was credited with popularizing the “movie palace” style of the 1920s. When the Paramount was completed in 1927, it became the tallest structure on Broadway north of the Woolworth building, with its pyramidal shape echoing the studio’s mountain peak logo.

Rapp & Rapp, which had built several prominent theaters in the Midwest, was also hired to design Paramount’s flagship theater, which was located behind the tower. After almost three decades in operation, however, Paramount closed the theater’s doors in 1964 and subsequently removed its famous entrance arch and marquee in order to convert it into retail and office space. In 1988, the Paramount Building and former theater were both landmarked for their “significant contribution to the development of the world-famous theater and entertainment district.”

After being used as storage for newsprint by The New York Times in the 1990s, the former theater was finally leased in 2000, when a section of the office tower was acquired by the World Wrestling Federation, which sought develop the space into a WWF-themed restaurant. The WWF spent more than $7 million to rebuild the historic marquee and monumental arch that once marked the theater’s Broadway entrance, saying that it would “add to the entertainment value of the company.”

When the WWF (by then renamed the WWE) operation closed three years later, the Hard Rock Café, looking to relocate from its longtime home on 57th Street, began the process to take over the space. After two years of negotiations with the landlord and the WWE, the Hard Rock signed a lease in 2005.

Leonard Grunstein represented the Paramount Building in connection with the refinancing of its mortgage and the leasing of the WWE space to the Hard Rock Café. Mr. Grunstein, who was at the time a partner at Jenkens & Gilchrist, also led the charge to obtain approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission for the creation of four valuable blade signs.

Grunstein Drafts Historic NYC Condominium Offering Plan

The Ruppert Yorkville Towers is a four-building apartment complex located in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The Towers were built in 1975 to replace the Jacob Ruppert Brewery, which closed in 1965 and left a 20-acre lot open for development.

Four months after the brewery’s closing, the city designated the property — which occupies the four blocks between 90^th and 94^th streets — as an urban renewal site.

The firm Conklin & Rossant submitted the first plan for development of the site, which called for two high-rise apartment towers and four eight-story buildings, for a total of more than 2,500 high- and moderate-income housing units. Another plan called for a 78-story luxury tower that would have been the world’s tallest at the time.

Eventually, developers settled on a proposal by the architecture firm Davis, Brody & Associates comprised of three separate but stylistically cohesive towers: the high-rise Ruppert and Yorkville Towers and the four-story Knickerbocker Plaza. The plan also included a cobblestone pedestrian mall at 91^st Street, a park and a playground.

The buildings were financed through the Mitchell-Lama Housing Program, a public housing subsidy law that seeks to support the development of affordable and middle-income housing in the city. Mandated by law to accept strict rent limitations, developers are entitled to withdraw from the program after 20 years.

In 2003, the owners of the Ruppert Yorkville Towers withdrew from the Mitchell-Lama program, converting 797 of the 1,258 units into market-rate condominiums. As a partner at Jenkens & Gilchrist, which represented the Towers’ owners, Leonard Grunstein drafted the Condominium Offering Plan and negotiated and then organized the closing of the conversion of the properties to condominiums — reported to be one of the largest such conversions in New York City history.

The agreement with the Tenants’ Association, which was embodied in an Amendment to the Condominium Offering Plan, was reached over the course of a few weeks (a process that would normally take more than eight months). It allowed residents to buy their apartments at a significant discount or resell at market rates.

The arrangement itself was monumental and complex, resulting in the simultaneous closing of most of the 797 sales. Buyers, bank lenders, attorneys and managing and selling agents all had to work together to achieve this result. Widely covered by the press, the conversion was described as a “milestone” by The New York Times. Miles M. Borden, one of Mr. Grunstein’s partners, was quoted saying, “In terms of sheer size and speed, I think this deal was historic.”

Carter Horsley, City Realty

Nadine Brozan, “Residential Real Estate; Big Condo Conversion At Towers on East Side,” New York Times, 3/14/03