Wisdom Tree Investments Grows With 37,923-SF Lease at 245 Park Avenue
By Billy Gray September 19, 2013 7:45 am
reprintsWisdom Tree Investments, Inc. signed a 15-year, 37,923-square-foot lease at 245 Park Avenue, The Commercial Observer has learned.
The asset manager and fund sponsor will move to the entire 35th floor of the 1.7-million-square-foot Grand Central area tower and nearly double the size of its current office at 380 Madison Avenue. A rapid construction handled by Studley‘s management crew will have the tenant build out and move in in just four months.
Matthew Barlow, Greg Taubin and Gabe Marans of Studley represented the tenant. Peter Shimkin of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented the landlord, Brookfield Office Properties, alongside in-house rep Sarah Pontius.
Wisdom Tree’s current building will undergo a complete “reinvention” starting in February. “We have to work on an expedited time frame because [the tenant’s 380 Madison Avenue] lease expires in January,” Mr. Barlow said. “And unlike in normal situations their building is being taken down to the steel. They picked the right deal and they have to expedite design and construction.”
The 45-story building is rife with international banking tenants. In 2010, Société Générale leased 440,000 square feet there and ultimately subleased two floors, or 72,000 square feet. The real estate investment company Angelo Gordon and the Swedish bank Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken have also inked significant deals at the property.
245 Park Avenue sits square in the area targeted by the Midtown East rezoning proposal, which the Bloomberg administration hopes to get approved before the next mayor steps into City Hall. Mr. Barlow said that potential legislation did not have an effect on this transaction or others of its scale.
“245 Park is a very large building,” he said. The rezoning would more likely enter conversations concerning “buildings like 425 Park Avenue, 350 Park Avenue, some of the more antiquated buildings that were subject to these zoning restrictions”
Mr. Shimkin and Ms. Pontius could immediately be reached for comment.
