Pei Architects Renews 13K SF at 257 Park Avenue South

Design firm Pei Architects is renewing its 12,617-square-foot offices at the Feil Organization’s 257 Park Avenue South.

The tenant agreed to a 10-year renewal for the 19th floor of the 21-story Art Deco building on East 21st Street, which serves as its primary headquarters, according to tenant broker Helmsley Spear.

Feil did not immediately provide the asking rent in the property, which is also known as the Gramercy Park Building, but the average asking rent for Midtown South was $84.30 per square foot in the first quarter of 2024, according to a report from CBRE.

It’s unclear when Pei moved into the property, but it signed a 10-year renewal for the space in 2013, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

“Park Avenue South continues to prove itself as a highly desired corridor for prestigious professional firms to do business,” Feil’s Andrew Wiener, who brokered the deal in-house with Rob Fisher, said in a statement.

Helmsley Spear’s Peter Goldich and ABS Partners Real Estate’s William Carr negotiated on behalf of Pei Architects.

Pei Architects was founded by Chien Chung and Li Chung Pei, the sons of well-known architect I.M. Pei. The firm has been responsible for the design of Bank of China headquarters building in Beijing, the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., and China’s Suzhou Museum of Art.

Other tenants in the building include British apparel designer Paul Smith, which signed a 12,617-square-foot lease in July 2022, around the same time that developer Beachwold Residential signed a similar size deal.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.