Macquarie Group Inks 222K-SF Deal at 660 Fifth Avenue
By Celia Young May 16, 2022 2:13 pm
reprints
Brookfield Properties nabbed its first lease at 660 Fifth Avenue, four years after it took over the troubled office tower from Kushner Companies and started a $400 million redevelopment project, the landlord announced Monday.
Financial service firm Macquarie Group took 221,764 square feet across six floors of the building, previously known as 666 Fifth Avenue, to relocate its Americas regional headquarters from 125 West 55th Street, The Wall Street Journal first reported. Brookfield did not respond to questions about terms of the deal.
The 39-story Midtown office property was bought by Kushner — then mainly known as a New Jersey developer — for $1.8 billion in 2007, a record-breaking price at the time, the New York Times reported.
However, the splashy purchase soon turned south as the property was heavily leveraged and lost some of its largest tenants during the 2008 recession. Brookfield swooped in to take over the property in 2018, allowing Kushner to pay down the $1.1 billion in debt and buy out co-owner Vornado Realty Trust. (Disclosure: Kushner principal Nicole Kushner Meyer is married to Joseph Meyer, chairman and publisher of Observer Media.)
Brookfield then started a $400 million renovation of the building to add new mechanical systems, a new lobby and a new facade made of floor-to-ceiling glass panels, which it expects to wrap up this year. Aside from Macquarie Group, Brookfield is also reportedly in talks to lease more than 100,000 square feet in the property to Viking Global Investors.
“The commitment by Macquarie Group not only underscores the demand for top-tier office properties in New York City, but the understanding among leading global firms that the best talent wants to work in the best spaces,” said Mikael Nahmias, Brookfield’s senior vice president of leasing, who represented the landlord in-house in the deal. “The investment we’ve made to re-create the property has raised the bar for the next generation of workplace.”
Macquarie’s new offices will include a separate lobby entrance, 30,000 square feet of private outdoor terraces and a sign on top of the building when it opens in 2024. Alongside Nahmias, Brookfield’s Hayley Shoener and Paul Massey represented Brookfield with Cushman & Wakefield’s Bruce Mosler, Josh Kuriloff, Ethan Silverstein, John Santora, Matthias Li, Nicholas Dysenchuk and Howard Cross. JLL’s Peter Riguardi, Frank Doyle, Joseph Messina, Steven Rotter, Cynthia Wasserberger, Jessica Berkey, William McGarry, Carlee Palmer and Kristina Kopans represented the tenant.
Representatives for C&W did not immediately respond to a request for further comment, and Macquarie declined to comment.
“This headquarters lease highlights the continuing appeal of New York City as an unparalleled destination for leading talent from around the nation and around the world,” Riguardi said in a statement.
Celia Young can be reached at cyoung@commercialobserver.com.
