Hughes Hubbard Paves Way for Queens Museum Makeover

Hughes Hubbard & Reed laid the groundwork for the Queens Museum's grand reopening in November 2013 after a two-year, $69 million renovation.

Hughes Hubbard is representing the Museum, a longtime pro bono client, in a variety of transactions in connection with the high-profile makeover. Located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, New York, the renovated Museum has doubled in size, gaining 50,000 square feet of new space for galleries, resident artist studios, event space, classrooms and storage for its growing collection.

The renovation also included relocation and expansion of the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass (NCTG) to the new wing of the museum. Prior to the grand reopening, Hughes Hubbard helped the Queens Museum enter into a long-term exhibition and cooperation agreement with NCTG, continuing and expanding on a partnership that began in 1995.

As part of a renewed focus on hosting special events in its new space, Hughes Hubbard also recently represented the Museum in two exclusive agreements for special events catering services. In April, the Museum entered a deal with New York-based hospitality group Amerivents for museum café services and special events catering. In May, based on a carve-out in the Amerivents agreement, the Museum entered a deal with Union Square Events (USE), the catering and events arm of Danny Meyer's renowned Union Square Hospitality Group, whereby USE will provide catering for events at the Museum during the two-week period of the U.S. Open tennis tournament this summer.

Hughes Hubbard is also working closely with the Museum and the Queens Borough Public Library in connection with plans to open a public branch of the library in the museum's newly renovated wing. Although the transaction is not final, the parties publicly announced plans to join forces shortly before the Museum reopened in November.

The Museum's reopening made headlines in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News and other media outlets.