French Kiss: The Romance Between Trinity Real Estate and Parisian Advertising Behemoth Havas, Revealed!

In the late summer of 2011, Trinity Real Estate, the owner of 350 Hudson Street and 200 Hudson Street, reached out to Havas and told the company it would be able to make enough space to provide for the media group’s needs.

At the time, there was a collection of printing agencies, each one carrying varying amounts of office space, that had departed for Queens. Getty Images, one of the tenants at 200 Hudson Street, had agreed to give up a floor, sized at 38,000 square feet, said Jason Pizer, president of Trinity Real Estate.

This brought Havas back to the building, and almost instantly the firm was intrigued by the possibilities 200 Hudson Street had to offer. Havas liked 200 Hudson’s large windows and its ceiling heights.

The space also had the suitable dimensions to help the company put its open-space plan into effect. Plus there was the evolving character of the Downtown neighborhood. With neighboring firms like Viacom and New York magazine holding offices inside Trinity Real Estate buildings, the company liked the creative and advertising-friendly aspect of the Hudson Square nabe.

“It’s been great to see how the neighborhood has thrived and attracted more and more creative companies in media, communications and technology,” said Ms. Stover.

The company could also transform the Hudson Street office into a predominantly open space planning. That was enough to sweeten the deal for Havas, which eventually agreed to take space at both 200 and 205 Hudson Street. In the end, the firm will have not only have its first New York City campus: It will eventually have the site of its global headquarters for the newly rebranded Havas Worldwide.

“Our teams are excited,” Ms. Stover. “[Hudson Square is] a fantastic location where all these vibrant neighborhoods come together.”

In the deal, Havas will be taking floors 2 through 8 at 200 Hudson Street, for a total of 225,000 square feet. Havas will also be taking 31,000 square feet on the ninth floor of 205 Hudson Street, and 4,000 square feet of storage space at 1 Hudson Street.

Asking rents were in the mid-to-upper $40s a square foot.

Mr. Falk, along with Newmark Knight Frank colleague Jason Greenstein, represented Havas in the deal. Marc Packman, also of Trinity Real Estate, worked with Mr. Pizer in representing the firm in-house in the deal. Cushman & Wakefield’s Andrew Peretz and Robert Constable also represented Trinity Real Estate in the lease transaction.

When all is said and done, Havas will add new amenities to the space, including a state-of-the-art production facility, a cafe, an “innovation laboratory” and a theater. TPG Architecture, which had worked on law firm Bingham McCutchen’s office space, has been hired to work on Havas’s new New York City campus.
Trinity, in turn, will offer Havas other incentives.

“They are going to have some outdoor deck space,” said Mr. Pizer.

“They are going to do some big time branding with the lobby and signage in the building,” he added. “That was very big for them coming over.”

Havas will begin its move to the new offices in 2013. The space at 195 Broadway will be a second-phase move and will not commence until 2014.

drosen@observer.com