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Andrew HeiskellAndrew Heiskell
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Session:         Page of 824

Heiskell:

Opposite. It's difficult to believe that it would be a big issue as to whether or not to build on the West Side, but we would be the first big, modern building on the West Side, and whether you could rent out space or not on the West side of Sixth Avenue was a big question mark. We agreed to do it--

Q:

Oh, you're talking about where it currently is!

Heiskell:

Yes.

Q:

Go ahead.

Heiskell:

We finally agreed to do it--

Q:

You mean, it was crossing some invisible demilitarized zone, or--

Heiskell:

I will explain exactly what--

Q:

Go ahead.

Heiskell:

We did it with the Rockefellers. They'd own 55% and we'd own 45%, and this was to take care of our needs for ever and ever. And sure enough, we couldn't rent the space with the address being 1271 Sixth Avenue. Somebody came up with the very simple idea: “the Time building at Rockefeller Center.” The minute you said “Rockefeller Center”, everybody gobbled up all the space. That's the difference between West Side and East Side.





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