NEW YORK CITY-Business partners and longtime friends Nicholas Bienstock and Christopher Schlank, co-managing partners at Savanna, once considered 386 Park Avenue South as a “zombie building.” But today, the 260,000-square-foot, 20-story Art Deco office building is beaming with activity, as the city’s top brokers and New York’s real estate glitterati gathered on the eighth floor of the building for an official launch party here on Wednesday evening.

“We invested to make this one of the best buildings in the Park Avenue South corridor,” Bienstock said, showcasing the 8,600-square-foot pre-built office space on the southern portion of the eighth floor. Just last year, Savanna partnered with New York and DC-based investment firm Monday Properties on a $30-million capital improvement plan for the property, which includes a revitalized lobby space, as well as new windows, elevator cabs, common corridors, renovated restrooms and heating and cooling systems.

Originally planned as high-end residential condos, the landlords recapitalized, paid off existing debt and created a new business and leasing plan for the site, receiving a $58-million loan from PCCP, LCC to finance the office upgrades in January. “The ownership is committed to investing in and improving the building,” said Christopher Schlank, co-managing partner at Savanna, who expects strong leasing activity going into 2012.

But all in all, filling up the 65,000 available square feet be shouldn't be too much of stretch, they said, given the strong demand in the tight Midtown South office market. With several social media and Internet companies in the neighborhood--like Pandora Media at 19 Union Square West, Foursquare at 36 Cooper Square, AK Networks at 381 Park Ave. South and eMusic at 39 W. 13th St.--Schlank is confident the building will emerge as a fresh work environment for the city’s growing creative class. “This tends not to be the typical white-shoe lawyers and financial services area,” he said. Asking rents range from $42 to $45 per square foot. “It’s more of folks that want to be here in the neighborhood. It’s hip, it’s cool and it’s fun.”