With an official ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 16th, Graybar has moved back into its original New York City location after 33 years apart. The Graybar building, located at 420 Lexington, has been a part of the New York City skyline since 1927. The Graybar name always remained on the building, despite the decision to re-locate the company headquarters to St. Louis in 1982.
Graybar is leasing nearly 3,000 square feet inside the building as part of an expansion strategy for its sales force. It marks what one person is calling “the return of Graybar to Graybar.” Graybar spokesman Tim Sommer told tED magazine, “The Graybar Building is one of the most iconic buildings in the world, and we are thrilled to once again have a presence there. It’s neat to recapture a piece of our rich company history, but at the same time our business growth in Manhattan has afforded us the opportunity to open this new location.”
“We’ve had a long and storied history in New York City, and this location further signifies our continued growth and desire to support our customers in Manhattan,” Sommer said. “I think this location is significant not only for our New York District but all employees throughout the company. We regularly communicate about our history internally including the Graybar Building, so I think this move is sentimental for many employees at Graybar.”
Sommer added that Graybar had plans for a New York City location for some time, but never really considered any location other than the Graybar Building. “It was about doing the right the thing for our New York operations, but we’ve had the Graybar Building on our radar for a few years. Now was the right time to make this move, and we can’t think of a better place to be located considering our name is already on the building,” he said.
“Our celebration was consistent with how we typically open new locations. We celebrated with employees, manufacturers, customers and members of the community. We will highlight this move in an upcoming issue of our internal company magazine and have already communicated this news to our employees. The feedback has been very positive,” Sommer added.
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