Another Architecture Firm Heads to 120 Broadway
By Lauren Elkies Schram September 16, 2014 10:56 am
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Handel Architects will join fellow architecture firms Beyer Blinder Belle and Boddewyn Gaynor Architects at Silverstein Properties‘ 120 Broadway just north of Pine Street, Commercial Observer has learned.
“They basically were able to cut their rent in half by moving downtown so it’s kinda a no-brainer when you’re staring down the barrel of a $2 million or $1 million rent,” said Bertram Rosenblatt, a founding principal of Vicus Partners and Handel’s broker in the deal. “Architects are not software companies or hedge funds. They have real expenses. They don’t have insane profits. The rent really does matter.”
Handel has taken 26,000 square feet on the sixth floor of the property. The asking rent was $45 per square foot and the lease is for 15 years, Mr. Rosenblatt said. Handel’s 16,000-square-foot lease at 150 Varick Street expires Dec. 1, the same day the firm plans to move into 120 Broadway.
Only 21,000 square feet had been available for lease at 120 Broadway, but Handel wanted another 5,000 square feet, which it was able to acquire through American Lawyer Media, which gave up the square footage in its 87,000-square-foot lease. In turn, ALM took an additional 7,000 square feet on part of the 21st floor, said Colliers International‘s Robert Goodman, who represented ALM in that deal as well as Boddewyn Gaynor Architects in its recent lease.
“120 Broadway is a Class-A downtown property,” Mr. Goodman said. And because of that, “It has attracted quality architects.”
Mr. Rosenblatt added of the 1914 building: “The rents are good. They’re going up, but they were very good. The light—architects are just crazy for light.”
Joseph Artuso, who represented Silverstein in-house, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
