Watson Farley & Williams Moving NYC Law Office to 13K SF at Tower 45
By Abigail Nehring May 8, 2024 1:16 pm
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Global law firm Watson Farley & Williams will move into new digs at Kamber Management’s Tower 45, and shed more than half its square footage in the process, Commercial Observer has learned.
The firm signed a five-year lease for 12,919 square feet on the 20th floor of the 40-story office tower at 120 West 45th Street to relocate its office from 250 West 55th Street, according to landlord broker JLL (JLL).
Asking rents at the property range from $60 to $80 per square foot, a spokesperson for JLL said.
The last time Watson Farley & Williams moved house was in 2016, when it expanded its footprint from 22,995 square feet at 1133 Avenue of the Americas in a relocation to 30,417 square feet at the BXP’s 250 West 55th, Law.com reported at the time.
It’s unclear why the law firm is downsizing its New York office, its only location in the United States, according to its website. The London-based Watson Farley & Williams has 16 other addresses in numerous countries around the world including Greece, Germany and Thailand.
Savills’ John Mambrino, Nicholas Farmakis and Michael Bertini arranged the deal for Watson Farley & Williams while JLL’s Paul Glickman, Diana Biasotti, Kyle Young and Kate Roush represented Kamber Management.
Mambrino, Farmakis and Bertini did not respond to requests for comment.
Biasotti said in a statement that the legal sector continues to drive office leasing activity in New York, but noted that many of these tenants “seek to manage their real estate footprint to suit new work patterns.”
Aside from the Watson Farley & Williams deal, solar panel company SolMicroGrid also signed a five-year lease for 3,166 square feet on the 27th floor of Tower 45, according to JLL.
Steven Levy, president of Kamber Management, said in a statement that the company upgraded the atrium on the 15th floor of 120 West 45th Street and added a new amenity center to attract tenants like Watson Farley & Williams and SolMicroGrid.
The building’s tenant roster also includes hair and nail product maker Wella Company, ship fuel company Minerva Bunkering and South Korean financial firms Nonghyup Bank and NH Investment & Securities, as Commercial Observer previously reported.
Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com.
