Flush with a multi-million dollar contract from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, French technology firm Alcatel-Lucent USA has inked a 5-year lease for an office space at The Nelson Tower.
The 5,436 square foot office at 450 Seventh Avenue, which is owned by The Kaufman Organization, will come complete with offices and a conference room, among other amenities. Barbara Raskob of The Kaufman Organization represented the landlord in-house.
Gary Ceder of UGL Services Equis Operations Co. represented the Alcatel-Lucent USA. Asking rents are in the low-$40s-a-square-foot. Average asking rents in the 500,000 square foot building are $89.21, according to CoStar data.
Last year, Alcatel-Lucent was awarded a 53-month contract, worth over $105 million, by the MTA to upgrade the VHF Radio System in 230 base stations in Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn and The Bronx, according to MTA records.
Both the Subway Radio Systems and eight NYPD sites will receive equipment upgrades. The radio system, which currently runs at 25 KHz narrowband channels, will be reduced (per a mandate by the Federal Communications Commission) to 12.5 KHz narrowband channels.
Alcatel-Lucent will be taking space previously occupied by the Housing Partnership, which moved to 242 W. 36th street, another Kaufman Organization-run building.
With the new MTA contract, Alcatel-Lucent is bringing in 20 new employees, and expects to add 15 in the future, said Ms. Raskob.
“They’re a bunch of bright engineering types– they’re scary,” said Ms. Raskob.
A lot of Alcatel-Lucent’s employees are expected to be out in the field rather than be stuck in the office, which made the building’s proximity to Penn Station all the more appealing, she said.
“The nature of their work is design and think-tank, but a lot of it is design,” she said.
drosen@observer.com
