Omnicom grows in 195 Broadway, now at 260,000 square feet

Lee Feld of Feld Real Estate, LLC represented Omnicom in the deal. David Berkey of L&L Holding Company represented the ownership group, which includes Beacon Capital Partners.

Omnicom will be taking the entire 17th floor in the transaction, and will now have five-and-a-half floors in the building. Asking rents were in mid-$40s. The lease is set to expire in 2023, when it will be co-terminus with Omnicom’s other leases in 195 Broadway.

Phone calls Mr. Feld and to Omnicom were not immediately returned.

Omnicom, which initially took over 180,000 square feet in the downtown building in 2007, had the ability to grow in the building and decided to take the 17th floor.

The firm’s growth in the building, where Thompson Reuters is the anchor tenant, proved to Mr. Berkey that 195 Broadway is made up almost “100 percent” of creative tenants.

In doing so, the downtown neighborhood’s character is quickly shedding its buttoned-up, financial past and becoming a more creative one.

“Most people think of downtown as downtown, kind of a financial district, cold, dark (and) windy,” said Mr. Berkey. “That whole thing is really changing.”

Throw in the soon-to-be-opened Fulton Street Transit Center and a creative workforce that commutes from either Brooklyn and Queens to 195 Broadway, and Mr. Berkey said it made perfect sense for the Omnicom to take more space.

The new lobby, which he described as being designed after the Parthenon, also helped.

“There is more marble in that building than anywhere in New York,” Berkey boasted.

Omnicom won’t be the lone media giant with 260,000 square feet of downtown office space to its name. Earlier this week, global French media company Havas signed a new deal for 260,000 square feet that will turn 200 and 205 Hudson Street into their New York City campus.

drosen@observer.com