Wafra Capital Partners Takes 14K SF at L&L Holding’s 425 Park Avenue

A spokesperson for the landlord confirmed the lease, but declined to comment on the terms of the deal. Asking rents at the 897-foot tower ranged from $185 to $255 per square foot in 2019, Commercial Observer previously reported.

Wafra has offices about four blocks away at 350 Park Avenue, NYBJ reported. It’s unclear if Wafra plans to move out of its old digs for 425 Park. 

The investment management firm, along with Nightingale Properties, recently sealed a deal for $500 million in acquisition and construction financing for 111 Wall Street from a lending consortium of SKW Funding, PIMCO, Oaktree Capital and Bain Capital, CO previously reported. 

Wafra’s lease marks the third transaction recently signed for L&L’s $1 billion tower between East 55th and East 56th streets, after a nearly two-year drought. Private equity firm Hellman & Friedman took 27,800 square feet in March, and health care real estate investment trust Medical Properties Trust inked a deal for 13,900 square feet in April. Both tenants are expected to move in before the end of the year, according to L&L.

L&L began construction on the development, designed by Foster + Partners, in 2016 and plans to finish the project this year, said L&L’s Andrew Wiener, who was part of the team that brokered the deal for the landlord. The new skyscraper replaces a 1950s-era, 33-story building. 

When completed, the new glass-and-steel building will hold 675,000 square feet of office space and will be the first full-block tower to be built along Park Avenue in about 50 years, NYBJ reported.

JLL’s Drew Saunders and Martin Horner, along with Savills’ Kirill Azovtsev, represented Wafra in the deal. L&L’s Wiener and David Berkey handled the deal for the landlord in-house. The tenant brokers did not respond to requests for comment. 

Celia Young can be reached at cyoung@commercialobserver.com.