Silverstein Properties Scores Series of Deals at 120 Broadway
By Daniel Geiger September 5, 2012 4:17 pm
reprintsSilverstein Properties may not yet be pulling tenants to the World Trade Center site, but several leases are teeing up at 120 Broadway according to sources familiar with the building.
At least three deals are done or in process these people say, including a large lease that just got signed for the building’s entire 50,000-square-foot seventh floor with the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.
The Metropolitan Council, a large social services organization, will relocate to 120 Broadway from 80 Maiden Lane. The non-profit, whose representative in the deal was Bruce Rothman, an executive at Studley, negotiated an economical lease at the building with rents in the $30s per square foot, a source said, and an a generous work allowance granted by landlord Silverstein Properties to construct its offices in the space.
Neither Mr. Rothman nor a press contact at the Metropolitan Council could immediately be reached.
The seventh floor had long sat vacant the source said. Silverstein’s strategy to cut a bargain deal appears to fill it appears to have paid off by helping to generate momentum at 120 Broadway.
Strategies for Wealth, a financial company located nearby at 140 Broadway, is also in talks to take space at the 1.8 million square-foot-building as is Beyer Blinder Belle, an architecture firm that currently has its New York offices at 41 East 11th Street.
Both Strategies for Wealth and Beyer Blinder Belle are said to be in talks for between 30,000 to 40,000 square feet each though, like the Metropolitan Council, either deal could also be for a full floor, which generally run slightly over 50,000 square feet apiece in the 40-story building. Representatives at both firms did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
120 Broadway is famous in architecture and land use circles for being the building that ushered in an era of zoning law in the city. The property, which was finished in 1915, sparked concerns and criticism in its day for the way it erupts from the sidewalk straight up, without any setbacks, to its full 540 foot height, creating a hulk of a building that reportedly casts a seven-acre shadow in Lower Manhattan.
Beyer Blinder Belle was drawn to the building for its place in architectural history and also because the company admires its classic aesthetic that is in keeping with the projects it works on, such as the Ellis Island Museum of Immigration and the restoration of Grand Central Terminal, which involve timeless New York landmarks.
The leasing activity is a positive news for Silverstein Properties, which is developing Four World Trade Center and has also been searching for a large tenant that would permit it to build Three World Trade Center. Lower Manhattan has several vacancies, including millions of square feet at the nearby World Financial Center, that have made attracting deals a competitive undertaking.
