Casting Agency Behind ‘Hamilton’ and ‘Kinky Boots’ Relocating HQ Within Theater District
By Liam La Guerre April 6, 2016 3:16 pm
reprints
Telsey + Company is changing the setting of its offices and audition rooms.
The agency, which has provided casting services for major Broadway hits such as Hamilton, Wicked, Kinky Boots and Rent has inked a 10-year, 12,000-square-foot lease to relocate to 1501 Broadway, also known as the Paramount Building, Commercial Observer has learned.
It is moving onto part of the fifth floor of the 33-story office property between West 43rd and West 44th Streets, which is owned by Paramount Leasehold, a partnership of Levin Properties, the estate of Arthur G. Cohen and other investors.
Asking rents range from $50 per square foot to $70 per square foot, according to a spokesman for Avison Young, the landlord’s’ broker.
Telsey + Company is departing from nearby 311 West 43rd Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues this summer, where it has 11,000 square feet on the 10th floor.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Seth Hecht and Cresa New York’s Richard Plehn represented Telsey + Company in the deal. Mr. Plehn declined to comment. Mr. Hecht, who did not immediately return a request for comment via a spokesman, worked on the deal while at Colliers International.
In addition to its services for musicals on Broadway, the nearly three-decade-old casting firm has worked on various films, commercials and television shows such as a recent pilot for a new TV series called Drew, as Observer previously reported.
A big reason for the move involved the building’s history as the former home of the Paramount Theatre and Paramount Pictures. Also, the 800,000-square-foot Paramount Building is going through a $50 million renovation, which includes replacing all windows and elevators, upgrading the corridors and bathrooms and adding a new lobby.
“The building, which is undergoing large-scale capital improvements, presented Telsey + Company with an inviting workplace that meets all of their corporate needs,” Avison Young’s Arthur Mirante, who represented the landlords with colleague Michael Gottlieb, said in prepared remarks.
Engineering firm Hardesty & Hanover recently signed a 35,000-square-foot lease at the property, as CO reported. Other tenants include Nederlander Organization, Second Stage Theatre and American Federation of Musicians.
