August 30, 2023
Talking about AI is fun, but, at the end of the day, Prophia manages the proprietary tenant data of some of the most historic and luxurious buildings throughout the country’s major metropolitan areas.
We measure the effectiveness of our AI with a variety of metrics that are significant to machine learning, such as the rate of bias of our training data and the platform’s overall data accuracy. But even we like to tout Prophia’s progress in sexier, more glamorous ways. One of them being, tracking the number of trophy assets and iconic buildings uploaded to the platform as we continue to partner with leading firms around the country to improve their portfolio data management strategies.
Read on to see if you recognize any of the commercial assets in our list. Every buildings’ tenant data is currently uploaded and digitized on the platform, providing the teams who manage day-to-day business operations a transparent view into the critical data of these iconic buildings in major metros throughout the country.
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One Boston Place
City: Boston, MA
Address: 201 Washington St., Boston, MA, 02108
Owner: Nuveen
Total Rentable Square Feet: 785,558
One Boston Place might not be the oldest building in The City of Champions, but it is certainly one of the most architecturally prominent in the Boston skyline. Built in the 1970s, One Boston Place is one of the largest steel frame buildings in the city. With exposed diagonal structure bracing and a masonry core, this behemoth is as visually formidable as it is corporately significant.
According to the Prophia platform, One Boston Place has 785,558 square feet of rentable space, making it the largest Boston-based commercial building on our platform. In addition to this trophy-asset status, the building also boasts some of the most beautiful views in the city, making it a perfectly picturesque place to spend time throughout the work week.
Pier 57
City: New York
Address: Pier 57 Hudson River Greenway New York, NY, 10011
Owner: RXR
Total Rentable Square Feet: 411,201
Pier 57 sits, or should we say floats, in the Hudson River off of the western shoreline of sunny Manhattan. The Art Deco-style building was built in 1952 and officially opened in 1954. Standing at only about two stories high, Pier 57 might not be the tallest building on our platform, but it is perhaps one of the most architecturally striking thanks to its distinctive, bright green façade and boat-like shape.
Throughout the 20th Century, Pier 57 was an innovative industrious space for both marine and aviation development. Today, with the collective imaginations of RXR and Youngwoo & Associates, the building has been reimagined as a mixed use space, supporting retail, office, event space, a bustling public market, as well as a new name, “SuperPier”.
75 Rockefeller Plaza
City: New York
Address: 75 Rockefeller Plaza New York, NY 10019
Owner: RXR
Total Rentable Square Feet: 631,248
If you aren’t familiar with One Boston Place, no doubt you are familiar with 75 Rockefeller Plaza. Built as an extension to 30 Rockefeller Plaza in 1947, the expansion was built when the Standard Oil Company outgrew its lease earlier that decade. The resulting 33 story building built in the early modernist style has been a historic fixture of Manhattan, hosting tenants such as the Standard Oil Company, Time Warner, Financial Times, PBS, and The Economist.
In 2014, when Time Warner vacated, the building’s owners brought in RXR to facilitate a $250 million renovation to attract desirable, high quality tenants. The renovation included a new lobby and replacements of the elevator cabs, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, mechanical as well as restoration of the building’s modernist façade.
Following the renovation, RXR secured Merrill Lynch Wealth Management as the anchor tenant of the building, sprinkling in lease agreements with the American Girl Doll Store which relocated its flagship store to 75 Rockefeller, a 14,000 square foot lease with Erste Group, as well an invite-only club on the 32nd floor announced by co-working startup, Convene.
One Worldwide Plaza
City: New York
Address: 350 W. 50th St New York, NY 10019
Owner: RXR
Total Rentable Square Feet: 1,956,120
Another trophy asset with over 1 million square feet in rentable commercial space, One Worldwide Plaza, is a Hell’s Kitchen Art Deco marvel. With three stories devoted to the building’s base alone, the architectural firm that originally imagined the building, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, decided to construct the skyscraper’s lower levels out of materials that relate to the neighboring residential buildings. But that’s about where the similarities end. At the top of the 50 story building is a distinctive, pyramid copper roof decked out with round dormer windows and a pyramidal glass crown at the very top. In addition to these Art Deco elements, One Worldwide Plaza tops out at 1.9 million square feet of rentable commercial space, making it the second largest building owned by RXR on our platform today.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
City: Alexandria, VA
Address: 400 Dulany St. Alexandria, VA 22314
Owner: FD Stonewater
Total Rentable Square Feet: 2,386,940
While the USPO was founded in 1836, almost 30 years before the American Civil War, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in Alexandria, Virginia, is not a historical building. Rather, it is a modern, city-like campus with 11 buildings and 2.3 million rentable square feet that houses about 12,000 employees. This is the largest Government building currently hosted on our platform.
The Evening Star Building
City: Washington DC
Address: 1101 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington DC, 20004
Owner: Nuveen
Total Rentable Square Feet: 226,332
With about 200,000 square feet of commercial space, the Evening Star Building in Washington D.C. is one of the only historic landmarks on the platform today. The lovely Beaux Arts-style building conveniently sits equal distance between the White House and the Capitol building—a highly strategic locale for a building that once housed the offices of the Evening Star Newspaper Company between 1900-1950.
In 1964, the building was declared a Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site and today, the palatial structure holds its own among modern office buildings, ornamenting Pennsylvania Ave with Beaux-Arts details of the past and a crisp, white marble façade.
225 W. Wacker
City: Chicago, IL
Address: 225 W. Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL, 60606
Owner: Spear Street Capital
Total Rentable Square Feet: 649,293
Situated on the southern bank of the Chicago River, 225 West Wacker Drive stands as a 31 story office tower of architectural significance. Its design, a joint effort by Kohn Pederson Fox and Perkins+Will, offers a beautiful, expansive view of downtown Chicago. Positioned between the city's top office submarkets, this prime location has elevated the property's status, positioning the trophy asset as a favored choice among discerning tenants seeking a centralized presence in downtown Chicago.
Built in 1989, the West Wacker tower’s Postmodern elements were constructed to mirror some of the stylistic elements of the Merchandise Mart on the other side of the river as well as the more Gothic elements of the Tribune Tower on Michigan Ave. This makes the 600,000 square foot skyscraper standout among the many buildings along the Chicago River.
300 S. Wacker
City: Chicago, IL
Address: 300 S. Wacker Dr., Chicago, IL, 60606
Owner: Golub & Company
Total Rentable Square Feet: 528,293
300 S. Wacker is a boutique building situated in Chicago’s Loop business district across from the east bank of the Chicago River. For residents of The Second City less familiar with the gleaming business addresses of the Loop, they’ve no doubt caught a glimpse of the 400-foot-tall map of the city crawling up the eastern face of the building’s façade from a water taxi or crossing the W. Jackson Blvd bridge.
While 300 S. Wacker today, even though this vestige of the 70s still stands in the shadow of the Willis Tower (literally), the addition of the 35 story concrete slab (as well as additional projects in the lobby) helped improve the building’s occupancy from 80% to 86% in 2015 and today the building is a staple of Chicago’s famous Architecture Tour.
680 N. Lake Shore Drive
City: Chicago, IL
Address: 680 North Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL, 60611
Owner: Golub & Company
Total Rentable Square Feet: 502,198
This Class A building stands proudly in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood along sunny Lake Shore Drive. Completed in 1926, this building was originally named the American Furniture Mart and originally had the address 666 N. Lake Shore Drive. That was later changed from 666 to 680 due to (many speculate) the number’s association with the “number of the beast” from the Book of Revelation.
Built in the classic, Neo-Gothic style that can be found in prime locations through the rest of the city, 680 N. Lake Shore is a 31 story building with approximately 500,000 rentable square feet. The building has housed a number of notable companies over the years from Chemical Bank to Playboy.
8West
City: Atlanta, GA
Address: 889 Howell Mill Rd NW, Atlanta, GA, 30318
Owner: Lionstone Investments
Total Rentable Square Feet: 193,344
Located in Midtown Atlanta, 8West is a mixed-use project that blends industrial style with Class A luxury design. This nine story building or 200,00 square feet supports the needs of the modern, urban office go-er with retail and art and boasts a sweeping vista of the Atlanta skyline. Even though 8West is a newer building in A-Town, it upholds many of the values Atlanta has been known for for decades: as a hub for the artistic and the hardworking.
One Allen Center
City: Houston, TX
Address: 500 Dallas Street, Houston, TX, 77002
Owner: Brookfield Properties
Total Rentable Square Feet: 986,467
As one of the premiere business addresses in Houston, One Allen Center has been a part of the Houston skyline since construction on the 34-floor building was completed in 1972. The building has hosted a number of big-name companies over the years, but perhaps its most notable transformation occurred in 2018 when Brookfield Properties facilitated a massive overhaul on the building that introduced a one-acre greenspace as well as a wellness studio and a tenant-conferencing center, analogous of just some of the trends we see happening in commercial real estate throughout the country.
Campus Pointe 1
City: San Diego, CA
Address: 10300 Campus Point Drive, San Diego, CA, 92121
Owner: Nuveen
Total Rentable Square Feet: 449,759
The number of life science buildings in the United States is expected to grow by 20% over the next two years. This has made life sciences a particularly attractive asset class for those continuing to invest in commercial property. One such facility on the Prophia platform is Campus Pointe 1 in San Diego, CA, a Class A life sciences building totaling 449,000 rentable square feet.
The building, located in the University Tower Center, is striking with a green-glass curtain that reflects the bright, California sun off of floor-to-ceiling windows along the structure’s first and second floors. As a true Class A life sciences facility of the 21st Century, San Diego’s Campus Pointe 1 is LEED Platinum certified with a minimal carbon footprint and an abundance of green features throughout the building.
The Bon Marché Collective
City: Seattle, WA
Address: 300 Pine St., Seattle, WA, 98101
Owner: URG
Total Rentable Square Feet: 772,300
300 Pine, or The Bon Marché Collective, is an expansive and historic retail center in downtown Seattle. With over 700,000 square feet of commercial space spanning retail and luxury offices, this vast commercial building ties together all of the beloved elements of the Emerald City into one of the largest and most recognizable structures in the heart of downtown, from art and cuisine to tourism and entertainment.
The Bon Marché was completed in the 1920s, but really, the concept for the store began much earlier than that in 1890 by Edward and Josephine Nordhoff. The two real estate mavericks moved to Seattle from Chicago and brought with them a wealth of knowledge about the retail phenomenon that was the French department store. They bought a small retail space in modern-day Belltown and managed it deftly through economic hardship in the late 1800s. Josephine Nordhoff even learned the Chinook language to better serve the shop’s Native American clientele at the time.
The hustle paid off and eventually the couple purchased a much larger building at 2nd Avenue and Pike Street where the store entered an era of rapid growth and expansion. By 1929, the Bon Marché opened at Third and Pine, officially crystallizing itself as the gleaming retail giant it remains today in downtown Seattle. Today, the current property stakeholders are transitioning the space into a new era of retail and the department store experience.
Foundry Square II
City: San Francisco, CA
Address: 405 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA, 94105
Owner: Nuveen
Total Rentable Square Feet: 520,218
Located in the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco, Foundry Square was an ambitious mixed-use project that began in the early 2000s. As a collection of four luxury buildings, the collective commercial space totals 1.6M square feet. And each of the buildings sit on their own street corner, forming a larger unified public square and plaza that houses modern sculptures and green space for the community.
Each building has distinctive architectural elements that make the collective a modern whole. For Foundry Square II, which was completed in 2002, the developers decided to keep the façade of the historical, industrial building that was there before and build out a modern mixed-use structure that today houses offices for Slack as well as design studios.
The Foundry project began as part of a renaissance effort to transform the South of Market neighborhood from old warehouses and parking lots into a highly desirable business district. With 520,000 square feet of rentable space, the developers of Foundry Square II accomplished this and more by maintaining the architectural elements of the original building that are significant to the history of The City.
If you’re currently managing a Trophy Asset in one or a handful of major markets, Prophia can help manage your proprietary data and make important strategy decisions that continue the legacy of your portfolio’s historic or luxury assets. Reach out to a member of our team today to see how.