75 Broad Street has a long history of providing telecom and data center services in New York's Financial District. It was also one of the industry's hardest-hit buildings during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, featuring heroic efforts by providers to keep their infrastructure and tenants online.
This month 75 Broad Street owners JEMB Realty announced a "relaunch" of its interconnection and hosting business through a strategic partnership with NYI, an infrastructure services specialist that works closely with financial services and enterprise customers in Manhattan and beyond.
The partnership continues the growth for NYI, which last year expanded its presence at 60 Hudson Street, another landmark Manhattan carrier hotel. With the relaunch, NYI and JEMB hope to re-establish 75 Broad and Lower Manhattan as destinations for digital infrastructure.
“Interconnection has become the core driver of growth for our industry in NYC and we’re thrilled to help JEMB relaunch a building that has such historical relevance in the telecommunications space,” adds Phillip Koblence, Co-Founder and COO of NYI. “Facilitating cost-effective interconnection is at the core of NYI’s mission."
It's been more than a decade since Hurricane Sandy's wind and storm surge inundated lower Manhattan, flooding the basement levels of 75 Broad Street, which housed diesel fuel storage and pumps. A determined team of employees and customers of Peer 1 Hosting formed a "bucket brigade" to relay 5-gallon buckets of diesel fuel up 17 flights to refuel a generator providing emergency power to the company's data center in the building.
In Sandy's aftermath, many customers seeking data center and telecom space in New York opted for buildings further uptown, including 60 Hudson Street, 111 8th Avenue, 32 Avenue of the Americas and the Sabey Data Centers property at 75 Pearl Street.
JEMB and NYI say they aim to "rebuild the carrier ecosystem and restore 75 Broad to its significant position in the city’s interconnection landscape."
JEMB has invested more than $15 million since 2012 to upgrade and reconfigure the mission-critical infrastructure at 75 Broad Street. The post-Sandy improvements including installing new and relocated electrical switch gear, a new fuel system and flood gates.
“We’ve made significant capital improvements over the last decade and continue to offer unique value to telecommunications tenants,” says Morris Jerome, Principal at JEMB Realty.
75 Broad Street is a 34-story, 720,000 square foot building located just two blocks from the New York Stock Exchange. it was built in 1928 as the headquarters for International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT), and during World War II served as a hub for communications with American submarines operating in the Atlantic Ocean. More recently, in the 2000s, the venue served as one of the original New York City carrier hotels.
NYI will act as a strategic operating partner, managing the sales, business development, marketing, and customer success functions for digital infrastructure and interconnection activities at 75 Broad Street. Customers will also have access to NYI’s deep technical expertise and full suite of managed infrastructure services.
“NYI, with their unique understanding of interconnection and New York City digital infrastructure, along with their integrity and commitment to excellence, is the optimal partner to help us leverage these valuable telecom assets to re-activate our carrier ecosystem as well as attract new carriers and enterprises to the building,” said JEMB's Jerome.
NYI is an experienced player in Manhattan’s data center scene, providing managed services and interconnection services to enterprises and the financial sector. It has expanded its operations with facilities in Chicago and space in Long Island, Miami and Seattle. In recent years the company has focused on expanding its service offerings at 60 Hudson.
"Following our recent expansion at 60 Hudson Street and strategic partnership with Long Island Interconnect, 75 Broad will allow us to further deliver on our mission and enable carriers, cloud and content providers who rely on interconnection, whether it be subsea, terrestrial or wireless, to achieve greater scalability and resilience,” said Koblence.
