Leases  ·  Office

Stem Cell Foundation Consolidates With New Far West Side Lease

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The New York Stem Cell Foundation, a nonprofit founded in 2005, has signed a lease at 619 West 54th Street to consolidate its two offices on the Far West Side.

The nonprofit has taken 41,000 square feet of space, Stephen Siegel of CBRE, who represented the tenant with colleague Gary Kamenetsky, told Commercial Observer. The lease was for 20 years, Mr. Siegel said, and New York Stem Cell Foundation will move into the new space during the second quarter of 2016. Annual asking rents in the building range from the high-$50s per square foot to high-$60s per square foot, according to a press release.

“This was an opportunity to not only consolidate our laboratory and office into one location, but to build a new state-of-the-art laboratory that will allow us to do the work needed to bring us closer to new treatments and cures for patients,” Susan Solomon, the nonprofit’s chief executive officer, told CO.

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The foundation’s headquarters is currently occupying 20,000 square feet at 1995 Broadway between West 67th and West 68th Streets, and its lab is at 3960 Broadway between West 165th and West 166th Streets. Ms. Solomon said the new lease spans the entire third floor and part of the second floor at 619 West 54th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues.

The new space includes a laboratory, offices and common areas that can accommodate twice the foundation’s current headcount, as The Wall Street Journal first reported. There will be 45 full-time scientists and 20 office staff on site.

“It was after an exhausted search and this space fills their needs for power, water supply, labs and research,” Mr. Siegel said. “It’s a very unique and important transaction for the foundation going forward.”

Greg Smith, Ellen Israel and Kristen Morgan of JRT Realty Group represented landlord Taconic Investment Partners in the deal.

“The New York Stem Cell Foundation is an excellent addition to 619 West 54th Street’s impressive array of tenants and the building is perfectly suited to accommodate their variety of uses and the infrastructure required for their new lab and research center,” Paul Pariser, a co-chief executive officer of Taconic, said in prepared remarks.

Taconic acquired the 10-story 619 West 54th Street for $112 million in October 2012, city records show. The 326,861-square-foot property was originally built as a film-editing house for Warner Brother Pictures in 1930. It now houses a more diverse tenant base including Maserati, City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, as well as RK Bridal.