So it may come as a surprise that at 11 Penn Plaza, right in the Garden’s backyard, the building’s tenants and visitors experienced, well, virtually nothing out of the ordinary. No security breeches, no threats; not even excessive noise was reported during the convention – quite an accomplishment considering the expected ruckus.
As one of the largest real estate investment trusts in the United States, Vornado was no stranger to the need for superior and cost-effective security – but the time constraints imposed by the imminent convention were unusual. Under ideal circumstances, the trust would usually take a year to coordinate and manage the various elements of such a security solution. With much shorter notice before the GOP showed up next door, they would need to hire consultants to design a system, select and negotiate with a vendor to install it, train building engineers to operate it, instruct security personnel to monitor it, train office personnel to administer it, educate tenants to use it, and make provisions for ongoing programming, changes/ upgrades and maintenance to ensure the functionality of the system over time. Each task had potential hazards, and the trust had a small window of time within which to execute them all.