Houston-based global law firm Baker Botts has signed a 10-year, 104,000-square-foot renewal for its space at Tishman Speyer’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
The move comes on the same day that the firm, the fourth-biggest adviser on North American oil and natural gas deals this year, announced it will expand to Brazil as Petroleo Brasileiro SA — its first Latin America office in almost 50 years.
The company, founded in 1840, has more than 700 lawyers operating in 15 offices worldwide and has been working with Brazilian clients for at least seven years.
Managing Partner Andrew Baker called the move into Brazil a “historic moment for Brazil, particularly with respect to Rio’s continued growth as the epicenter of Brazil’s energy sector.”
Baker Botts has a 13 percent share in the market for North American oil and gas deals this year, and its market share for Latin American deals during the past five years is 0.1 percent, according to Bloomberg.
The New York lease covers the 43rd to 45th floors, according to the New York Post, which first reported on the deal.
The starting rent for the lease was around $80 per foot, about half of what they paid for an expansion into part of a floor during the highs of 2008, the Post noted, citing CompStak data.
John Nugent and Andrew Sussman of CBRE (CBRE) represented the tenant. Mr. Hugent was unavailable for comment and Mr. Sussman did not immediately return calls and emails seeking comment. Rockefeller Plaza was repped in-house by Tishman Speyer.
