Hedge Fund Kepos Capital Inks 20K-SF Lease at 11 Times Square
By Rey Mashayekhi March 15, 2018 7:04 pm
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Alternative investment firm Kepos Capital has agreed to move its Manhattan headquarters to a 20,000-square-foot space at SJP Properties’ 11 Times Square, Commercial Observer has learned.
Kepos signed a 10-year deal last month for part of the 35th floor at the 40-story, 1.1-million-square-foot office tower at 640 Eighth Avenue between West 41st and West 42nd Streets, according to sources with knowledge of the transaction.
The hedge fund is expected to relocate to its new Midtown West space in August from its current location just one block south at the New York Times Building at 620 Eighth Avenue, where it presently occupies around 17,000 square feet on the 44th floor.
Asking rent in the deal was not immediately clear. Paul Glickman and Diana Biasotti of JLL (JLL) represented landlord SJP—which owns 11 Times Square in partnership with PGIM and Norges Bank—while CBRE (CBRE)’s Ben Friedland and Michael Movshovich represented Kepos.
In a statement, SJP CEO Steven Pozycki said Kepos wanted to “maintain its presence in the city’s premier transit hub,” referring to 11 Times Square’s proximity to Port Authority Bus Terminal across Eighth Avenue and Penn Station several blocks south. “For today’s financial services firms, it’s critical to have an office that provides state-of-the-art connectivity and is outfitted with the latest technology infrastructure,” he said.
Matt DesChamps, Kepos’ COO, said in a statement that the new space’s larger footprint and the company’s “ability to design the space to our requirements” provided it the “opportunity to create a customized work environment to serve our clients and support our growing business in the years ahead.”
“Kepos Capital joins a roster of leading financial and technology firms attracted to one of the city’s most advanced and sophisticated commercial towers,” JLL’s Glickman said in a statement to CO. Law firm Proskauer and tech giant Microsoft anchor the office building, which was completed in 2010.
Representatives for CBRE did not immediately provide comment.
Kepos was founded in 2010 by former Goldman Sachs (GS) partners Mark Carhart, Giorgio De Santis and Bob Litterman, who previously led the quantitative investment strategies division at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. The firm manages $3 billion in assets for a global base of institutional investors.
Madrid-based amusement park operator Parques Reunidos signed a lease last year to anchor 11 Times Square’s retail space, where it is developing a 45,000-square-foot indoor entertainment complex, known as Lionsgate Entertainment City, in partnership with film studio Lionsgate.
