By Gus Delaporte 6/07 10:15am

Lease Beat

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Mediaocean Relocating to RXR Property

Mediaocean, a developer and provider of advertising software, is relocating to RXR Realty’s 620 Avenue of the Americas after signing a 14-year, 88,387-square-foot lease for a portion of the property’s sixth floor. Asking rent was in the low-$60s.

The tenant, which has 80,000 users and processes $130 billion annually, is relocating from 115 West 18th Street. Mediaocean, headquartered in New York, also operates offices in Atlanta, Chicago, New Jersey, Los Angeles and Louisville in the United States. International locations include Toronto, Paris and London. Read More

By Gus Delaporte 1:34pm

Sales Beat

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Lehman to Sell Stake in 425 Park Avenue

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is aiming to sell its 90 percent stake in 425 Park Avenue, a source familiar with the matter confirmed with The Commercial Observer. Eastdil Secured is marketing the property, according to the source.

A publicly available spreadsheet of Lehman’s commercial real estate holdings lists a building with a description similar to 425 Park Avenue: “Sandwich ground lease in an existing Class B building in New York City that is slated for demolition and redevelopment into a new office tower beginning 2015.” The list of holdings identifies Adam Spies of Eastil Secured as the broker for the property. The source familiar confirmed Spies as the broker for 425 Park Avenue, but the listing could not be immediately verified.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the story earlier today. The Midtown East building is set to be demolished and replaced with a new office tower designed by Foster + Partners. Read More

By Gus Delaporte 2/12 1:35pm

Sales Beat

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RXR Realty to Acquire 237 Park Avenue

RXR Realty, a real estate operating and investment company affiliated with Walton Street Capital, has agreed to acquire 237 Park Avenue from an entity controlled by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., it was announced today.

The transaction has a large equity component with a low-leverage, existing loan in place, according to Scott Rechler, chairman and chief executive officer of RXR. According to multiple reports, the closing price is approximately $800 million. Read More

By Al Barbarino 1/24 4:09pm

Lease Beat

RXR Realty Signs 99-Year Lease at 75 Rockefeller Plaza

Scott Rechler’s RXR Realty has signed a 99-year triple-net lease at British department store tycoon Mohamed Al Faye’s 75 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, where it plans to undertake a major capital improvement to reposition the building.

The 33-story building will be fully vacated by Time Warner Cable in 2014, leaving behind roughly 630,000 square feet of rentable area, and the renovations will include a new lobby and a restoration of its landmarked, classic limestone façade, executives at RXR said. Read More

By Al Barbarino 1/18 1:50pm

Leasing Assignments

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Cushman & Wakefield Marketing 100,000 SF Being Vacated by Pearson at 1330 Avenue of the Americas

Cushman & Wakefield has been appointed by RXR Realty as the exclusive leasing agent for roughly 100,000 square feet being vacated by Pearson at 1330 Avenue of the Americas, where ownership recently completed a capital improvement program and a rare signage opportunity awaits a prospective anchor tenant.

Floors 7 through 10, 14, 16 and 17 will come online in the 40-story trophy building in January 2014, after Pearson vacates the space, freeing up four sides of illuminated signage atop the building (the signage is currently branded “FT” for Pearson-owned Financial Times) for the new tenancy to broadcast its image into the Manhattan skyline.

“We want it to be the right image for the right company, and one that takes a meaningful presence in the building,” said William Elder, leasing director with RXR Realty.  “This is a very rare opportunity that allows for top of building signage just outside of Times Square. Read More

By Al Barbarino 1/14 1:47pm

Lease Beat

450 Lexington Avenue (Credit: CoStar)

Cresa New York Takes 13,000 SF in Relocation to 450 Lexington Avenue

Tenant representation firm Cresa New York has relocated its New York City headquarters from 100 Park Avenue to 450 Lexington Avenue, subleasing a 13,000-square-foot space in a move that highlights the firm’s commitment to growth and creating a collaborative work environment.

The firm took about half of the 32nd floor in the 950,000-square-foot, 32-floor Class A office building, located between 44th and 45th Streets in Midtown Manhattan’s Grand Central submarket.

The space is the perfect breeding ground for the firm’s continued expansion, with a “team-oriented” design and an address closer to Midtown, company executives said. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 11/06/12 7:00am

Midtown

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The Incredible Shrinking Tenant

Earlier this year, approximately 150,000 square feet opened at the Midtown office tower 399 Park Avenue when the law firm WilmerHale, a tenant in the building, left to relocate to Lower Manhattan.

The property, a 1.75-million-square-foot skyscraper owned by the large commercial owner Boston Properties, is home to the global headquarters of Citibank and is widely considered one of the finest office buildings along Park Avenue, an exclusive and highly desirable corridor in Midtown.

Boston Properties had found takers for the building even in the worst of times, filling the few hundred thousand square feet that suddenly became available in 2008 when Lehman Brothers, a former tenant, collapsed and sparked the financial crisis.

Fast-forward to 2012, a market several years removed from the depths of the recession, and this time around, Boston Properties wasn’t taking any chances. According to the leasing agent at the property, Peter Turchin, an executive at the real estate services firm CBRE, Boston Properties quickly switched to the leasing strategy du jour: finding takers for the space one floor at a time rather than waiting for one big user to fill a large portion or all of the space. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 9/25/12 5:43pm

Sales Beat

75 Rockefeller Plaza

RXR Realty Takes the Lead in Bid to Buy Leasehold in 75 Rock

RXR Realty has moved into the lead in an auction to take control of 75 Rockefeller Plaza several sources familiar with the bidding told The Commercial Observer.

A source who had participated in the bid for the tower told The CO that the price of the deal, which is being structured as a leasehold, had moved to around $17 million per year in the latter rounds of the auction – though it could not be immediately confirmed whether RXR had agreed to pay this price or if the company had advanced to the point where it would close on the deal. Read More

By Carl Gaines 9/17/12 3:18pm

Sales Beat

450 Lexington Avenue.

RXR Completes 450 Lexington Buy

On the heels of purchasing the mezzanine debt on 450 Lexington Avenue, RXR Realty has completed its acquisition of the building from Istithmar World, the Dubai-based investment firm.

The company also initiated a rent reset with the building’s largest tenant—law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell—that will keep the firm in place in its 650,000 square feet there for 15 years. Other tenants there include Warburg Pincus. Read More

By Michael Ewing 8/20/12 7:00am

Lease Beat

Courtesy of Gothamist

A24 Films Set to Open Office at 601 West 26th Street

A24 Films has inked a deal for an office at the 601 West 26th Street, also known as the Starrett-Lehigh Building.

The entertainment company will be leasing a 3,100 square foot office in the 2,300,000 square foot building that occupies the entire rectangle block between 26th and 27th Street and 11th and 12th Avenue.

Shorenstein Read More

By Daniel Geiger 8/02/12 3:41pm

Lease Beat

620 Avenue of the Americas

Spotify Close To 620 6th Avenue Deal

Spotify is on the verge of signing a 73,000-square-foot lease for the entire seventh floor of 620 Avenue of the Americas several sources familiar with the deal say.

The company, which provides online streaming music services, will move to the building from 111 Eighth Avenue. Read More