Tottering Media Giant Renews 125K-Plus at 220 East 42nd

Lately the old Daily News building has been looking as lonely as yesterday’s newspaper. But at least one of its main tenants, the Tribune Company, is staying put. 

The media conglomerate has renewed its 24,639-square-foot space at 220 East 42nd Street for another six years. The good news comes as the company struggles to keep afloat such mainstays as the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and The Baltimore Sun. Controversial CEO Randy Michaels and chief innovation officer Lee Abrams have also both resigned in the last couple of weeks.

One of the Tribune’s affiliates, WPIX, will also renew its 100,602-square-foot lease in the building for 10 years. The TV company has been faring better than most of the Tribune family on a steady diet of junk TV faves like Gossip Girl and America’s Next Top Model.

Law firm Hoffman Polland & Furman PLLC has also signed an 8,364-square-foot lease in the building for at least six years, bringing the total space recently leased to 133,605 square feet.

Still, long gone are the days when the building housed an army of Daily News hounds. More than 188,000 square feet of space will be coming vacant by January 2011, according to Mr.OfficeSpace.com. One major tenant, the U.N. Population Fund, is also set to move to a new 130,000-square-foot space at 605 Third Avenue.

Jeffrey Samaras, Louis D’Avanzo and Robert Gastal of Cushman & Wakefield represented WPIX and the Tribune Company. Joseph Ferrara of Hunter Realty Group LLC acted on behalf of Hoffman Polland & Furman PLLC. David Kaufman represented the landlord, SL Green, in-house.