Skanska Opening Midtown Office to Handle $113M MTA Project
By Celia Young November 30, 2022 3:07 pm
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Skanska will build out its New York office footprint, and the city’s subway system, thanks to a new 7,149-square-foot deal at 230 West 41st Street, Commercial Observer has learned.
The construction company signed a three-year lease to open an outpost across the entire 16th floor of the building, which will house engineers working on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s ongoing $113 million project to replace 17 escalators in six subway stations, said John Aires of tenant broker SVN BIOC’s.
Asking rent was around $49 per square foot, said Aires.
Skanska will take over the space from fashion retailer Shopbop, which ditched its 24,954 square feet across the 16th, 18th, 19th and 20th floors this year to consolidate its footprint with its parent company Amazon, according to landlord broker Colliers. Shopbop left the 16th floor partially furnished, letting Skanska move in right away.
“[The space] was ready to go — borderline turnkey — requiring just a little construction,” said Aires, who represented Skanska with colleague Jonathan Stravitz.
Plus, Skanska’s new Midtown outpost gives it easy access to the 53rd, 145th, Ninth, Whitehall and two 59th street subway stations that it will renovate through 2026, and the deal’s shorter term might help the landlord re-lease the space during a better office market, said Colliers’ Robert Gallucci, who represented landlord the Research Foundation for the City University of New York in the deal with colleagues Alexander Jinishian and George Sticca.
“The length of the lease term was both flexible for ownership and for them,” said Gallucci. “For us, it’s handy because three years from now could be a very different place than we are today in terms of rent.”
The deal adds to Skanska’s two other New York City offices at 350 Fifth Avenue in Midtown South and 75-20 Astoria Boulevard in East Elmhurst, Queens.
Other tenants at the 20-story building between Seventh and Eighth avenues include the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and commercial printer ArtScroll Printing.
Celia Young can be reached at cyoung@commercialobserver.com.
