Boutique Financial Firm Joins $200 Club at Solow Building
By Al Barbarino March 6, 2014 11:27 am
reprintsBenefit Street Partners, an arm of the private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, has reportedly signed an 18,345-square-foot lease at Sheldon Solow’s 9 West 57th Street for a whopping $200 per square foot.
The lease covers a portion of the 50-floor Solow Building’s 49th floor, according to published reports.
While triple-digit leases have skyrocketed across the city over the last year or so, the pick up in the economy has boosted the earnings as well as confidence of the boutique financial firms vying for such space.
Still, deals stretching into the $200 range are rare. “I nearly fell off my chair,” one broker quipped last year, in response to Brazil’s Banco Itaú agreeing to pay upward of $200 per square foot for a 35,000-square-foot space on the 50th floor of the General Motors Building.
Hedge fund Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb Inc. paid the same $200 fare when it took roughly 30,000 square feet on the 50th floor at 9 West 57th Street, and brokers claim there is more to come.
“We have several leases that are pending that are of comparable value,” Jones Lang SaSalle’s Scott Panzer, who represents Mr. Solow at the property, told Crain’s.
Benefit Street Partners’s parent company, Providence Equity Partners, is based on the 47th floor of the building.
Neil Goldmacher, Daniel Madison, John Moran and Brian Goldman from Newmark (NMRK) Grubb Knight Frank represented Benefit Street Partners.
