Time Warner is “leaning towards” selling its 1.1-million-square-foot headquarters at 60 Columbus Circle and moving to Hudson Yards, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.
Following the cue from anchor tenant Coach, last month SAP and L’Oréal cut deals to lease 115,000 and 402,000 square feet at Related Companies’ South Tower, respectively, bringing it to 80 percent occupancy.
A media company with the influence and scope of Time Warner would be a game-changer for the Yards, some believe.
“The next tenant is an important moment for the district because it starts to build real momentum with tenants from other parts of the city,” Derek Trulson, a broker at Jones Lang LaSalle, who represents Extell Development Co. in leasing its site in the area, told the Journal.
The sale of its Columbus Circle headquarters, where it moved to a decade ago, could yield $1 billion; and since launching its search for a new home last year, it has “approached the owners of about 20 local sites,” including the World Trade Center and Brookfield (BN) Place, according to the Journal.
Among the options for Time Warner at Hudson Yards are sites owned by Extell, Brookfield Office Properties, The Moinian Group and Related Companies.
Related’s 26-acre site will include more than 6 million square feet of commercial space, 750,000 square feet of retail space, about 5,000 residences, a new school, and a luxury hotel. It is located near the West Side Highway, the Lincoln Tunnel, and the extension of the No. 7 subway line, which is scheduled to open in 2014. The developers announced that they closed on nearly $1.4 billion in equity investments and debt financing in February.
