Design Firm Tagwall, Developer RD Management Ink Leases at 1745 Broadway
By Isabelle Durso March 7, 2025 11:59 am
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Penguin Random House is letting go of more of its office space at Midtown’s 1745 Broadway, this time offloading space to architect Tagwall and real estate development firm RD Management.
The publishing house, which leases roughly 604,000 square feet at the 52-story office tower owned by Invesco Real Estate (IVZ), has already subleased 27,375 square feet at the building to law firm Knobbe Martens, as Commercial Observer previously reported.
Now, Tagwall, which designs and installs architectural wall systems, is taking another 26,366 square feet of Penguin’s space on the entire eighth floor of the building, according to sublandlord broker Cushman & Wakefield (CWK).
Meanwhile, RD Management, which specializes in development, redevelopment and acquisitions in key markets, signed a 17,363-square-foot sublease on part of the seventh floor, C&W said.
It’s unclear whether the deals represent relocations or expansions for the firms. Tagwall currently has its offices at 321 West 44th Street, and RD Management is currently at 810 Seventh Avenue, according to their websites.
The two deals come in addition to several other recent subleases for Penguin at the building between West 55th and West 56th streets.
Those include Knobbe Martens’ recent deal, as well as consulting firm Procurement Advisors’ sublease for 15,052 square feet on part of the 22nd floor and nonprofit Make-A-Wish Foundation’s 12,373-square-foot deal for another part of the 22nd floor, according to C&W. All told, Penguin has let go of nearly 100,000 square feet at 1745 Broadway.
“We have successfully subleased over one-third of the space we are marketing at 1745 Broadway in just one year,” C&W’s Richard Bernstein, who brokered the deals for the sublandlord along with Adam Ardise, Stephen Bellwood, Lei-Lani Keelan and Troy Elias, said in a statement. “This achievement underscores the building’s appeal and the strong demand for high-quality office space in this prime Midtown location.”
Both subleases have terms lasting until June 2033, C&W said. The asking rents were not provided, but a report from Colliers found office rents in Midtown averaged $79 per square foot in February.
JLL (JLL)’s Matthew Astrachan, Benjamin Bass, Harrison Potter and Kate Roush represented Tagwall, while Newmark (NMRK)’s Ben Shapiro, William Levitsky and Matthew Augarten brokered the deal for RD Management.
Newmark and Invesco declined to comment, while spokespeople for JLL, Tagwall, RD Management and Penguin did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It’s unclear if Penguin is looking to offload more of its 1745 Broadway space.
The subleases seem to represent a larger consolidation strategy for Penguin, which shuttered its SoHo offices at 345 and 375 Hudson Street in 2019 to move all of its roughly 2,400 employees to 1745 Broadway, an office building often referred to as Random House Tower.
The publisher has faced some struggles in recent years, especially after losing $200 million in a failed bid to buy rival Simon & Schuster last year, the New York Times reported.
Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.
