20. Six Hundred Guilford

Six Hundred Guilford Avenue — “Big Six,” as employees in the neighborhood call it — is the largest and most ostentatious high-rise office building in the city, eclipsing the grandeur even of the most tenured of buildings at Hoyt & Cross. Of course, the stodgy environment of Hoyt & Cross considers Big Six to be crass and nouveau riche. The professional rivalry between high finance and corporate business notwithstanding, Six Hundred Guilford is an extremely clean, extremely stressful neighborhood. Most of Newcastle’s nationwide corporate companies have offices here, and more than a few international companies maintain offices, too. It’s not cheap, though — most local companies by comparison maintain offices in less expensive neighborhoods. If you’ve got it, flaunt it, though, and the wealthiest companies in America do so here, at about $80 per square foot of leased space annually.

Background

Big Six is nouveau riche, to be honest. Back in the 1950s, Guilford Avenue was a strip of car dealerships, single-office insurance brokerages and hardware stores. Today it’s one of the fastest-growing commercial districts in America. To be fair, there are still two car dealerships on the strip, one of which is a BMW dealer and the other is an importer of high-end luxury car brands such as Aston-Martin, Bentley and Maserati. None of the insurance brokerages in Big Six have any fewer than dozen-office operations, but most have moved to Hoyt & Cross.

Alternative Name(s)

Corporate Sector, Big Six

Type

District

Location under

New Castle