Liberty for One: Investment Technology Group Signs Biggest Lease of the Year
By Daniel Edward Rosen March 20, 2012 10:30 am
reprintsAs ITG needed three floors, Brookfield was able to reach a deal with the Royal Bank of Canada for that firm to get out of its fourth-floor lease.
The elephant in the room—or rather, the elephant in the courtyard—was the Occupy Wall Street protests that were taking shape in Zuccotti Park throughout the fall of 2011, and again last weekend. But those involved in the negotiations said that the protests, in which a full-time community set up tents and inhabited the Brookfield-owned Zuccotti Park to protest the discrepancy in income between the wealthy and the diminishing middle class, never became an issue.
“It was discussed, but I think everyone felt confident that over time that it would become less of an issue,” said Mr. Goldmacher. “They were very confident that the city and the mayor and Brookfield and OWS people would all figure out something eventually, and they did.”
Despite the protests being “directly across the street,” Brookfield said that it never became an issue.
“This is the second significant lease we’ve signed in the last several months,” said Mr. McCuaig, referring to the 45,000-square-foot lease signed by Getco at the building in February.
“It wasn’t an issue with either tenant, because they knew we are a quality owner that was going to take care of their front door, and we did, in conjunction with the city,” he added.
By the end of February, Brookfield and ITG came to an agreement. The firm would take 132,000 square feet of office space in a 16-year lease at an asking rent of $49 per square foot. ITG has a right to expand and renew in the space in the deal.
Aside from several large renewals, including a 360,000-square-feet deal in January by Bank of America and another transaction by Information Builders at 2 Penn Plaza that same month, the ITG deal is the largest in Manhattan this year. A 186,000-square-feet lease at 330 Madison Avenue by the investment firm Guggenheim Partners, was leaked to The Commercial Observer in late December 2011 and reported in its pages January 3, although it was likely sealed late last year.
One Liberty Plaza is now 98 percent leased.
As part of the deal, ITG was given dedicated space to install its own generators and independent air-conditioning systems.
In its move from 380 Madison, ITG was also consolidating. It had purchased several research companies over time, each with its own satellite offices spread across Manhattan. Those companies will be under one roof at 1 Liberty.
By moving downtown, ITG is receiving economic incentives from the city Economic Development Corporation, including real estate tax benefits and N.Y.C. commercial rent and occupancy tax break.
With the new space, ITG will be demolishing and renovating the entire office space, all the way down to the concrete and the windows.
“We are not keeping one thing,” said Mr. Goldmacher. “Everything is going to be brand new. It’s going to be really fantastic.”
Architectural firm Ted Moudis Associates is designing the office. VVA LLC is serving as the project manager for the office reconstruction.
The firm is expected to move into its new offices in 2013.
