Kayser & Redfern Renews Lease at 515 Madison
By Abigail Nehring September 15, 2023 4:00 pm
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Attorneys at Kayser & Redfern are staying put in the historic DuMont Building at 515 Madison Avenue.
The law firm signed a seven-year renewal for its existing 3,956 square feet on the 31st floor of the 42-story building, landlord GFP Real Estate announced. The company — which practices real estate, probate, corporate and literary property law — has been in the building since 2013.
GFP’s Martin McGrath represented the owner in the deal, and Norman Bobrow & Company’s Sam Matayev brokered it for Kayser & Redfern. Asking rent was $70 per square foot, Matayev said.
“We restructured the lease and leveraged the market conditions to get a great deal for my client,” Matayev said. “They want to stay where they are, and it was a seamless transaction with GFP.”
McGrath said it’s always exciting to keep long-term tenants.
“515 Madison feels more like home than an office building,” McGrath said in a statement. “It’s a great environment to be in. That’s why most companies stay here long term.”
Aside from the Kayser & Redfern deal, GFP also signed a short-term renewal with Alpha Properties for its 1,710 square feet on the 30th floor. GFP did not specify the length of Alpha’s renewal, but said it was less than five years.
GFP purchased the Madison Avenue office building in 2009 and completed a restoration of the entrance and lobby the same year.
The developer hit some troubled waters when it defaulted on its $130 million commercial mortgage-backed securities loan for 515 Madison last December, but the future brightened when it landed a three-year mortgage extension in March, as Commercial Observer previously reported.
A broadcasting antenna that dates back to 1938 gives the DuMont Building a distinctive profile in the Midtown skyline. It was used in the first broadcasts of Allen B. DuMont’s experimental television station, W2XWV.
Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com.
