Empire State’s Tenants Shrink From New Status

The Empire State Building once again represents everything that is New York, which means it has become a place of fear and loathing, harsh words, threatened lawsuits and talk of a grass-roots rent strike.

As tenants of this city within the city adjust to the changed landscape of Manhattan, which has made their building New York’s tallest again, many see their location as more precarious than privileged. The issue is safety.

Building managers tightened security immediately after the attacks last week, but some tenants are threatening to withhold rent checks unless it becomes tighter still. Other tenants want to leave for less conspicuous space, in part because long delays through new lobby checkpoints are keeping customers away from the 102-story landmark.

“It’s going to have to change; otherwise there’s going to be rioting downstairs,” said attorney David H. Ostwald, whose office is on the 45th floor. “People are waiting two hours to get in here.”

Similar debates over security are going on in high-rise buildings across New York, not to mention at airports, skyscrapers, sporting venues, government buildings and other public spaces around the nation.

At the Empire State Building, the frightening realities of the new New York are being kicked around in the same “in-your-face” manner of “old” New York.

A spokesman for building operator Helmsley-Spear said that a handful of tenants have asked to leave but that most are satisfied with stepped-up safety measures. He said the building is 98% occupied.

Since the attack, the building has been closed to tourists, packages have been X-rayed and its 20,000 office workers have been subjected to metal detectors. The security presence has grown from a staff of 23 to include 80 private guards, said spokesman Howard J. Rubenstein.

On Friday, management announced it would issue mandatory building ID badges to all tenants, Rubenstein said. Hotelier Leona Helmsley and businessman Peter Malkin, who have controlling interest in the building, “certainly understand” the jangled nerves, he said. “They certainly understand why anybody in the Empire State Building will have more concerns than those in low-rise buildings. They don’t belittle those concerns.”

Even before the latest announcement, some tenants said they felt safe enough and were staying put. “If you’re that afraid, you might as well lock yourself up in a bank vault,” said Irven “Jack” Brod, 92, the building’s longest continuous tenant. He moved his diamond business into the structure the year it opened in 1931.

Although Brod said he has no doubt the building could be a prime target for terrorists, he said the chances of a repeat of the World Trade Center tragedy are small. He also pointed out that the building withstood the impact of one airplane crash, when a misdirected B-25 bomber flew into the 78th and 79th floors in 1945, killing 14.

But other, less carefree tenants don’t want to take chances.

No sooner had the building reopened after the attacks than Ostwald’s partner, attorney Andrew P. Brucker, distributed a letter asking tenants to withhold rent checks unless drastic changes were made.

Brucker called for scanning of delivered packages and designating entrances to separate the building’s office force from the estimated 3.5 million tourists who visit or ride to the 86th-floor observation deck each year. Some tenants complain that tourists often wander the halls, hoping to catch a free view.

Brucker reserved his harshest words, however, for the private security guards hired to run the metal detectors--echoing the criticism of private workers at airport checkpoints. “I do not mean to degrade the staff, but these people are useless,” Brucker wrote. “The most they can do is point tourists to the ticket booth.”

Although building management says the private checkers are well trained and supervised by retired police officers, there is plenty of unhappiness.

“They’re pretty much inept,” said a uniformed police officer who asked not to be named.

Brucker said he sneaked a small knife in his briefcase through the detectors Friday. “I wanted to see if they could pick it up on their X-ray machines,” he said. “I could rip your throat very easily with it.”

Brucker said his letter struck a chord, drawing more than 60 responses.

One of them was from Michael Roth, executive vice president of a women’s shoe accessory firm on the 39th floor. He wants to relocate to a “less conspicuous location” and has asked his attorney to find a way out of his five-year lease--even if it means making case law by fighting it all the way to appellate court.

“I’m concerned about my safety,” said Roth, 45 and the father of two. “I have a wife. I’ve got kids that I want to get home to every night.”

While attorney Nathan Z. Dershowitz says he won’t join with Brucker’s call for confrontation and a rent strike, he said he agrees with criticisms of the building’s security. He may leave too.

“I don’t think it’s effective security; I think it’s symbolic security,” said Dershowitz, who worked with brother Alan to help defend O.J. Simpson on murder charges.

Ensconced in a choice suite on the 79th floor, the highest that can be occupied by tenants, Dershowitz enjoys a panoramic view of Manhattan, Yankee Stadium and New Jersey. But he says he’s willing to give it up when the lease expires in April, in part because of the worries among his staff. Some were so upset at coming back to the city’s tallest building after last week’s attack that they “started crying when they looked out the window,” he said.