Health Care Union Consolidating Offices in 580K-SF Move
By Liam La Guerre July 12, 2017 6:45 pm
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1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and its retirement fund will soon no longer be working in separate buildings in Times Square.
The union, which represents hospital and pharmacy workers among other health care-related professions, and its fund signed a lease for a combined 580,000 square feet at George Comfort & Sons’ 498 Seventh Avenue in order to consolidate.
The new digs, between West 36th and West 37th Streets, will be more convenient for the union’s 200,000 workers, while giving 1199SEIU the ability to vacate the building it owns and operates AT 310 West 43rd Street between Ninth and Eighth Avenues, and lease the ground floor to a developer long term, as Crain’s New York Business reported. Meanwhile, the retirement fund will leave its current offices at 330 West 42nd Street between Ninth and Eighth Avenues, a building it doesn’t own.
The terms of the deal were not immediately clear, but the union and its fund will occupy 14 floors and a portion of the ground floor and mezzanine level of the 25-story building, according to Crain’s.
CBRE’s Mary Ann Tighe, Ken Meyerson and Brendan Herlihy brokered the deal for the union’s fund 180,000 square feet of the space, Crain’s indicated. Cushman & Wakefield (CWK)’s Jonathan and Richard Serko, and Ed Donnery handled negotiations for 1199SEIU. A spokeswoman for CBRE did not return a request for comment, and a spokesman for C&W declined to comment.
Matt Coudert represented George Comfort & Sons in the deal in-house. He did not respond to an inquiry seeking comment via a company spokeswoman. And a woman who answered the phone at 1199SEIU told CO members of the union were told to decline to comment. No one at the fund was reachable as it was after business hours.
