Liberty for One: Investment Technology Group Signs Biggest Lease of the Year

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The firm also wanted large, column-free floors that would be suitable for a growing and fast-paced trading operation.

“[They] wanted to create a state-of-the-art trading platform with fantastic infrastructure,” said Mr. Goldmacher.

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Finding the kind of space that could fit both needs would be tricky, as the inventory of such buildings was limited at best.

At the end of 2010, the top executives of ITG were brought to 1 Liberty Plaza to look at an office space previously held by the Royal Bank of Canada.

The bank was leaving two floors of space to consolidate and relocate to the World Financial Center, where the firm has grown “exponentially,” according to a Brookfield employee. By the time ITG arrived, the Royal Bank of Canada had already left the sixth and fifth floors of 1 Liberty while still occupying a part of the fourth floor.

Off the bat, ITG was intrigued by 1 Liberty, said those close to the deal.
“It’s a trophy building, it’s at a great location, it has column-free, 40,000-square-foot floors,” said Mr. Goldmacher.

The evolving character of lower Manhattan, including the new Fulton Street Transit Center, the new World Trade Center and renovations to the World Financial Center (also a Brookfield property), was appealing to ITG as well.

Central to the appeal of the available space at 1 Liberty was Brookfield’s infrastructure, especially the possibility for ITG to be independent from the landlord’s power grid and entirely self-sufficient with its power needs.

“One Liberty has extensive infrastructure, and this tenant needed additional power and a back-up generator and chilled water,” said Duncan McCuaig, a vice president at Brookfield Properties who represented the firm in-house alongside colleague Sarah Pontius. “All those things we could accommodate.”

A perk at 1 Liberty: the building has its own set of significant back-up generators that can act as an emergency lifeline in the event the Con Edison grid fails at a moment’s notice.

“Tenants that have critical action plans, like at ITG, that can’t go down because they have critical infrastructure that has to be backed up, they’ll do it themselves,” said Mr. McCuaig.