Likely you’ve heard about the proliferation of empty urban office space since the pandemic and the rise in remote and hybrid work. But if you’ve given any thought to who might fill some of that space, you’ve probably overlooked a promising group: dancers.
Dancers need to work in person, a fact that made the Paul Taylor Dance Company attractive to potential landlords. At a time when funding for dance has been shrinking, the company has recently expanded into new headquarters in Midtown Manhattan — just in time for final rehearsals before its annual season at Lincoln Center (Nov. 5-24).
“They said they needed tenants who would show up to work,” John Tomlinson, executive director of the Paul Taylor Dance Foundation, said of George Comfort & Sons, the real estate management and investment firm that owns the building.
The space, two floors of an office building on West 38th Street, close to the Theater District, has been renovated to include two large double-height studios, along with classrooms, changing rooms and offices. It is nearly three times the size of the headquarters on Grand Street that the company has leased on the Lower East Side since 2011, a site it will retain.
A move this big might seem surprising in the current funding climate. But for this company, long one of the city’s most prominent dance institutions, expansion was, in a sense, a necessity. Making it happen required some good fortune, including the discovery of a quirk in real estate law.
With the expansion, the Taylor organization joins the very short list of dance companies with substantial real estate in one of the world’s most expensive markets: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Mark Morris Dance Group, Dance Theater of Harlem.
It’s “an upgrade, a jolt, an adrenaline shot to the system,” said Michael Novak, the company’s artistic director. Emerging from the pandemic — a crisis that came on the heels of the death of the company’s founder, Paul Taylor, in 2018 — the company, he said, asked itself a question: “Do we maintain our status quo or do we double down on growth and the future?”
“We’re doubling down.”
Tomlinson, the executive director, said that “even before Paul died, we had been talking about how the school needed to be bigger because it’s the only growth path.”
Foundations, Tomlinson said, have been shifting their money to social justice causes, at the same time that government grants and corporate sponsorship have decreased. Every expense involved in touring has gone up, and theaters, also struggling, don’t have more money to spend. “The gap between what they pay and what we are spending has gotten tighter and tighter,” Tomlinson said. “Now we pay to tour.”
The Taylor company’s annual home season at Lincoln Center is also a money loser, Tomlinson said, especially since the troupe is committed to using live music, by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Individual donors, including board members, are still a reliable source of funding, and Tomlinson stressed his gratitude for them and the foundations that have stuck by the company. But the only income stream with real potential to increase, and offset the losses, he said, is from the Taylor School.
The company considered several options. Why not build more studios for classes at the Grand Street location? Zoning laws and neighbor tenants got in the way. What about buying a building? Too expensive.
But when the pandemic hit and Tomlinson heard about companies shedding office space, he wondered whether conditions might have become more favorable. Through a chance connection, he found a new broker, Jeffrey Rosenblatt of Lincoln Property Company, and started a search.
“We were looking all over the place,” Tomlinson said, “and I was making offers and they were not even being looked at, because they were too low.”
Then they discovered 307 West 38th Street, and an owner interested in making a deal.
In an email, Peter Duncan, George Comfort’s president and chief executive, wrote that the firm felt that “a tenant of this quality” would create “a wonderful new use for the building.”
George Comfort agreed to invest millions in the conversion, which involved tearing out some of the floors to create the double-height spaces and installing fancy fold-down doors that can divide those studios into soundproof sections. (In his new office, Tomlinson keeps a chunk of one of the removed steel girders on his desk as a souvenir.) Novak, the artistic director, was all for it, so Tomlinson, armed with spreadsheets, made a case to the Taylor board.
“They saw this was an opportunity for us,” Tomlinson said, noting that the board raised $5 million in seven months. Now having moved in, the company hopes to raise an additional few million to help cover operating expenses while the school grows.
One reason the deal is advantageous for both parties is a commercial real estate structure called leasehold condominiums. Rather than leasing the two floors, the Taylor company has purchased them as condominiums — but with the payment spread across 30 years, after which ownership will revert to George Comfort. Because the Taylor company, a nonprofit organization, is the nominal owner, it doesn’t pay property taxes. Neither does George Comfort, which means it can lower what it charges.
“Everybody wins,” Tomlinson said.
Could this be a model? Tomlinson said that George Comfort has expressed interest in doing something similar for other dance companies. Asked about that, Duncan wrote that the firm had seen demand for the double-height spaces “from a variety of potential users” and that Comfort “would certainly welcome the opportunity” to work with other dance and theater companies.
Opening to the public in January, the West 38th Street space offers more room for classes, at a central location. And with the company now rehearsing in Midtown, more time for classes — or for renting to other companies — has opened up at the Grand Street branch.
Eventually, Tomlinson plans to convert the Grand Street offices into additional, revenue-generating studio space. For now, he’s renting them to artists. The landlord there, East River Housing Corporation, has lowered the rent so that the Taylor company can break even. “They want us to stay,” Tomlinson said, “because they know we’re good for local businesses and the community.”
A few years ago, the Taylor company received a grant from the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs to convert the largest Grand Street studio into a flexible theater. The goal is to make it a place where small dance companies can afford to perform. “There are very few spaces that offer that opportunity anymore,” Tomlinson said.
Expanding opportunities is an upside of growth. Novak recalled that when he first looked at the 38th Street building, Taylor’s board chair, Nancy Coles, asked him what he thought of moving there from Grand Street. “I want both,” he answered.
“Coming out of the pandemic,” Novak said, “I’ve never been more aware of the importance of the ecosystem. We’re in a position to help the whole industry and have a presence in many communities — uptown, Midtown, downtown.”
The people they serve on the Lower East Side, he added, may not go to Lincoln Center, “but we can make a space for dance where they are.” He has also made an effort to spread performances across the city: at the Joyce Theater in Chelsea and the 92nd Street Y on the Upper East Side.
The Midtown location brings the Taylor company closer to the energy of Broadway. “There’s a moment of inclusion now, and concert-dance choreographers are drawing on theater dance, street dance and ballroom culture,” he said. Being in Midtown “gives us a foot in all that.” (It’s also convenient; Novak lives on 34th Street.)
The expansion, Novak added, “raises an eyebrow within the industry — like, ‘What is Taylor doing?’” He said it keeps up momentum, listing bold moves from the past decade or so: moving the New York season to Lincoln Center from City Center, the use of live music and the incorporation of works by choreographers other than Taylor since 2015, the hiring of Lauren Lovette as resident choreographer in 2022. (The current season includes two premieres by Lovette and one by Robert Battle.)
“We’re taking a cue from Paul, who thought that stasis is death,” he said.
Tomlinson recalled that Taylor was at first against moving performances to Lincoln Center. But when he changed his mind, Tomlinson asked him why: “He told me, ‘Change for the sake of change is good.’”
Tomlinson also recalled the many times, when Taylor was alive, that the company would face a shortfall and Taylor would say not to worry. Every time, someone showed up with what was needed.
“He used to call himself the luckiest man in the world,” Tomlinson said. “And I think we are blessed with some of that luck.”
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