Meredith Whitney Advisory Group LLC is moving its offices to the high end Midtown office building 444 Madison Avenue several sources have told The Commercial Observer.
The company, whose founder Meredith Whitney gained fame for predicting the 2008 financial crisis, will take the 42-story building’s entire 34th floor, a roughly 5,500-square-foot space. Rents in the deal are in the $80s per square foot and the lease stretches for seven years the source said.
Though Meredith Whitney will pay premium numbers to be in the space, the firm is also receiving a generous incentive package sources indicate, including about $100 per square foot to outfit the space with an upper-end office installation.
A team from the real estate services firm CBRE led by Paul Amrich, a vice chairman at the brokerage company, handles leasing at the roughly 500,000 square foot property for Westbrook Partners, the building’s landlord.
Ethan Silverstein, a rising broker at Cushman & Wakefield, represented Meredith Whitney in the deal according to a source.
Neither Mr. Amrich nor Mr. Silverstein could be reached. A spokeswoman at Meredith Whitney was not able to respond to a request for comment by press time.
Originally a stock researcher and analyst for Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Meredith Whitney started her own equity research firm in 2009, originally taking about 4,000 square feet of space at 50 West 57th Street, an office building owned by Vornado. The move to 444 Madison Avenue will allow the company to expand.
