Rockefeller Group
The Rockefeller Group is a global private company based in New York City, primarily involved in real estate operations in the United States. It is fully owned by Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd. For 70 years, the Group has initiated some of the biggest projects in commercial real estate in the US, beginning with the development of one of the world’s major complexes in Rockefeller Center.
After building the original 6 million-square-foot, Art Deco complex from 1931 into the 1940s (the company name was then the Metropolitan Square Corporation), employing nearly 75,000 workers, the real estate company developed several towers in the immediate vicinity from the late 1940s into the 1950s and '60s. It entered into a partnership with Time-Life and constructed a 48-story building for the company that opened in 1959; this spearheaded the expansion of the Center to the west of 6th Avenue, Avenue of the Americas.
By the early 1970s, they had added a total of four International Style towers to Rockefeller Center, more than doubling the size of the original complex.
In 2003, they formed a joint venture with CommonWealth Partners, LLC to manage large real estate properties in the United States.
Today, the Group maintains an ownership/management position in the 7.7 million square feet of premier office space that makes up Rockefeller Center’s western corridor (the newer buildings). The eastern and original part of the Center is now owned by Tishman Speyer and the Crown family of Chicago.
Buildings
- Constructed the 43-story Sperry-Rand Building at 1290 Avenue of the Americas, in participation with the Uris Building Corporation (1962).
- Purchased the 28-story Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company Building at 600 Fifth Avenue (1963).
- Participated with the Hilton Hotels Corporation to build the New York Hilton on the Avenue of the Americas (1963).
- Constructed the 1 million-square-foot headquarters building for Public Service Electric & Gas in Newark, New Jersey (1970s).
- Co-developed in a joint venture with Continental Insurance Company, the Continental Center in Manhattan, which serves as that company's headquarters (1980s).
Subsidiary
- Cushman & Wakefield, Inc., now a full-service real estate brokerage firm operating in 46 countries, acquired from RCA in 1976; originally founded in 1917.