Benenson Capital Renews Offices at Rebranded 10 Grand Central
By Rey Mashayekhi July 26, 2018 6:15 pm
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Real estate investment firm Benenson Capital Partners is staying put at the newly rebranded 10 Grand Central after agreeing to renew its lease on 15,000 square feet at the Midtown East office tower, Commercial Observer has learned.
Benenson signed a 10-year deal to keep its offices on the 27th through 29th floors of the 35-story, roughly 420,000-square-foot building at the northwest corner of East 44th Street and Third Avenue, according to landlord Marx Realty. Family-led Benenson, which owns and operates a commercial real estate portfolio of more than 150 properties across the country, has occupied the building for more than 30 years.
Asking rent in the deal was $78 per square foot, according to sources with knowledge of the deal. Howard Hersch and Clark Finney of JLL (JLL) handle leasing at 10 Grand Central on behalf of Marx, while Benenson had no outside broker representation.
Marx recently rebranded the 1931 building—ditching its former moniker of 708 Third Avenue—and announced a $45 million capital improvement plan to upgrade the property. The work will permanently close the office tower’s main Third Avenue lobby entrance, renovate and enhance its existing secondary entrance at 155 East 44th Street and create a new 5,000-square-foot tenant lounge on the seventh floor featuring a 36-seat conference facility and a connected, 2,500-square-foot outdoor terrace.
“Current and prospective tenants are extremely enthusiastic about the updates and the terrific location,” Craig Deitelzweig, Marx’s president and CEO, said in a statement. He added that the renovations at 10 Grand Central seek to instill a “boutique aesthetic” and “hospitality-like vibe” at the building, which will feature uniformed doormen attending to the entrance.
In explaining Marx’s decision to rebrand the property, Deitelzweig told The New York Post earlier this month that the company “[didn’t] want to be associated with Third Avenue.”
“A lot of [Third Avenue’s office] buildings are commodity buildings. We don’t want to be like that,” he said, adding, “We want to be a Grand Central building.”
Other tenants at the building include the Association of National Advertisers, horse racing publication Daily Racing Form and the Permanent Mission of Lithuania to the United Nations.
Representatives for JLL did not immediately provide comment.
