Show Buildings Preps for Market

By Cecile B. Corral -- Home Textiles Today, 10/3/2005 12:00:00 AM

New York — —

New York — The Feil Organization, 261 Fifth Ave.'s new owner as of late August, is preparing for its first home textiles market, making some improvements to the building and talking to industry-related tenants about their needs for next month's event.

Randy Seider, 261's property manager, told HTT, “We want to learn about market and how we can best help and support our tenants.”

Already, the building has ordered new carpeting for the elevators, arranged for around-the-clock front desk service and security during market, begun cleaning all of the windows and sent a letter to home textiles tenants asking them of any special needs.

The building will also serve breakfast at the lobby from Oct. 14 through 20 for tenants and their guests.

Up the street, at mainstay 295 Fifth Ave., dubbed the Textiles Building, improvements to elevators will be completed by the end of this week.

Claude Litton, president of Manhattan Properties Co., which owns 295, said the building's 10 elevators — eight regular and two freight — will all be updated and fully automated for faster service between floors in time for market.

Also enhanced is the building's security system. Video cameras have been added to all exits and entrances, the loading dock, elevators and the common areas throughout the building. “We record everything and keep it for four weeks,” Litton said.

The newest tenants at 295 include: Home Fashions International/American Decorative Fabrics in suite 812, an 11,800-square-foot space formerly home to three separate companies' showrooms; Bacova Guild/Gulistan, which took Orian's and Santen's formerly shared space in suite 104, an 11,000-square-foot showroom; and Kassatex, which expanded its real estate, moving to Bacova's former 5,000-square-foot space in suite 812 from its smaller site at 1216.

Down south on Fifth Avenue, at 230, the elevators there, too, are being upgraded for quicker response, and the restrooms and corridors are being revamped with completion slated for 2007.

230 boasts several new tenants. They include: Brunton International on the 10th floor; Eagle Textiles on the seventh floor; Perry Textiles on the seventh floor; the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council, sponsored by the government of India, on the 10th floor; and Linens 'N Essentials on the 10th floor. Also, several existing home textiles tenants have expanded their spaces in the building.