If It’s Good Enough for Jeff Koons, It’s Good Enough for Housing Partnership Development Corp.
By Jotham Sederstrom March 8, 2012 4:00 pm
reprintsHousing Partnership Development Corp., a New York-based affordable housing advocate, signed a deal that will allow the nonprofit to expand by nearly a third by relocating offices from Seventh Avenue to a nearby side street, officials said last week.
The organization will take 6,700 square feet on a portion of a floor at the Kaufman Organization-owned 242 West 36th Street building. The group, which is currently in growth mode, relocates from 450 Seventh Avenue, where it had occupied approximately 4,500 square feet.
With asking rents of approximately $35 per square foot, the seven-year lease at the new asset will allow the nonprofit to expand in a loft building in a way that would have been far more costly at its previous building, said Michael Heaner of the Kaufman Organization.
“They needed to expand and they wanted to keep their rent fairly constant,” said Mr. Heaner, who represented the tenant alongside colleague Barbara Raskob, also of Kaufman. “They moved from an avenue building to a side street.”
Grant Greenspan, also of Kaufman, represented the building, which in recent months has lured in other young loft-prone companies, including Contemporary Conservation Ltd., another nonprofit that advocates for contemporary art.
The studio, which inked a deal last month for 7,200 square feet, chose the building for its oversize elevators, which it needed in order to accommodate a giant Jeff Koons rabbit sculpture, according to an article in the New York Post.
Jsederstrom@observer.com
