The Summit at One Vanderbilt

Background
The Summit at One Vanderbilt, midtown Manhattan’s extraordinary new skyscraper, is a class A office tower occupying a full city block between Madison Avenue and Vanderbilt Avenue, and 42nd Street and 43rd Street.  Standing at 1,401 ft. to the top of the spire, it is the tallest office building in Midtown with 59 stories, providing 1.6 million square feet of office and retail space, as well as an Observation Deck that occupies the top three floors of the building.  The Observation Deck at One Vanderbilt, NYC’s newest cultural phenomenon, benefits greatly from its proximity to Grand Central Terminal, capitalizing on the landmark’s historical and architectural significance (and consequently, a tourist magnet!).

Challenges
SL Green, One Vanderbilt’s developer, had long envisioned that the building’s highest floor would focus on offering visitors both indoor and outdoor food options in an area encompassing approximately 5,000 square feet. While the overall vision was clear, the path forward to achieve the goal was, in a word, challenging. The key was to transform the raw space in a way that would both complement Snøhetta’s (the architects) grand and spectacular creation AND provide a multi-purpose, functional, profitable, and state-of-the art culinary operation.

Solutions
SL Green turned to Gigachef Hospitality Group to turn their indistinct vision into a focused, functioning reality. After a lengthy exploratory phase, Gigachef created a detailed recommendation (presented to key stakeholders) that identified all food & beverage “moving parts” on the 59th floor – including an intriguing mix of indoor and outdoor concepts, and interior bar and lounge, and outdoor food & beverage carts. The document went through several rounds of revisions and once finalized, Gigachef then provided its kitchen design expertise – which was vetted by Snøhetta and incorporated into the final architectural plans – and continuous construction oversight for the duration of the project.

Moreover, Gigachef was asked by SL Green to create a “pros & cons” document regarding operating all foodservice operations in-house vs outsourcing. When it was decided to follow the latter route, Gigachef drafted the RFP for potential operators, as well as sourced and interviewed interested applicants, and presented its recommendation to SL Green.

Once Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG) was awarded the contract, Gigachef helped draft an Operating Agreement alongside outside counsel. Finally, Gigachef and USHG collaborated closely through construction until opening.

Results

• Gigachef Hospitality Group worked on the One Vanderbilt project for over 2 ½ years until the building opened in October 2021 (total project cost was $3.1 billion).
• Following their successful partnership, was asked by SL Green to craft a Concept Analysis on their newest property, One Madison.
• The building opened to wide acclaim, not only because of the revolutionary Observation Deck but also because of the high-profile nature of the culinary offerings: besides USHG, Daniel Boulud’s swank seafood restaurant Le Pavillon now grounds the street level of this soon-to-be landmark building.