Advertising Spin-Off DDCD & Partners Moves to 17 State Street

“They wanted to save the time and expense of building out their own space so it was important to find an office that was ready for them to move in,” Mr. Iacovelli said.

Though it insisted on searching the market diligently, DDCD didn’t have the luxury of time either. The company was founded this year as a high-profile spinoff launched by executives at Interpublic Group, including John Dooner, a former chief executive of McCann Worldgroup, Interpublic’s largest unit. It incubated at Interpublic’s offices at 161 Avenue of the Americas, but pressure was growing for it to stake out on its own now that it was severing from the company.

Mr. Iacovelli had an idea: DDCD’s executives hadn’t been enthused to skip Midtown South and go downtown despite the district’s reputation as a low-cost alternative. Mr. Iacovelli had a feeling, however, that given the arduousness of their search so far, if he could deliver the perfect space in lower Manhattan, the firm might be swayed.An address quickly jumped into his mind. Seventeen State Street, a 550,000-square-foot-office building owned by the real estate company RFR Realty, began the year with tens of thousands of square feet of vacancy.

But the building has been attracting deals in such a steady succession that buzz about its success has for months filtered through the market.

Located at the southern tip of Manhattan, where its curved facade offers a panoramic embrace of the waterfront, the property feels removed from downtown’s tightly coiled commercial corridors. Yet it is well tied to public transportation, with subway access in front of the building and the FDR Drive nearby. Burdened with vacancies during the depths of the recession, the property actually fell into special servicing in recent years. But RFR held on and has worked to bring the building back to what it feels is its rightful place, a high-end boutique office with appeal to a host of office users.