Prior to the start of construction, building developer Solomon Equities Inc. had signed the law firmProskauer Rose to a 20-year lease for, a notable deal due to the glut of commercial real estate on the market at the time, with relatively few major tenants seeking space. This also came after News Corporation walked away from their longstanding commitment to lease the balance of the building from the developer, and was further on the heels of News Corp's near financial collapse. In December 1991, the project filed for bankruptcy. A consortium of banks then worked with the developers and agreed to take control of the asset through the bankruptcy process and hired Hines Interests Limited Partnership to manage the property. Morgan Stanley bought the building for $176 million in August 1993 and moved in two years later. Currently, it uses the building as its world headquarters.
Management and engineering
All of Morgan Stanley's properties are currently managed by Hines Interests. DataComm management is jointly tasked between Morgan Stanley's IT unit referred to as "Morgan Stanley - Critical Systems" as well as Hines Interests. As of 1994, The building's peak electrical demand was 9,288 kW. This excludes the loads brought on by Morgan Stanley's tenants. Two floors of 1585 Broadway are reserved strictly for building operations, both of which can be observed from the exterior of the building by noticing its lack of windows.
The seventh floor contains the building's fleet of 7 Mitsubishi 2000 kW generators reserved for building operations, as well as a separate generator manufactured by Caterpillar Inc. which is reserved for the building's life safety system. The 7th floor also houses the building's 3 electric chillers 1,400 ton chillers, as well as 1,200 ton chiller. Morgan Stanley site control is also contained on the 7th floor. This site operations command center monitors conditions of all of Morgan Stanley's properties.
The building contains various UPS systems throughout the facility, strategically located according to the locations of critical loads such as Trading Floors, Data Centers, and DataComm rooms.
Morgan Stanley typically conducts an annual test, as well as preventative maintenance of all the building's mechanical, and electrical components in January. During this 12-24 hour period, the building is completely dark, including its retail tenants as well as its prominent Scrolling Stock Quote Ticker. During this time, another Morgan Stanley Site will operate as its Building Management Command.
The building was featured in Beck's music video for his 1996 single "Devil's Haircut" in which he is dancing on the street while stock market prices go by.
The building is featured in the movie Down to Earth as the skyscraper from which a failing businessman jumps to his death.
