Media Company Versant Expands to 250K SF at Former NY Times Building

New media company Versant is expanding its former “summer camp” office swing space at 229 West 43rd Street and making it permanent, Commercial Observer has learned.

After signing a 164,545-square-foot lease for a temporary home at the former New York Times Building last June, Versant has added 84,509 square feet across three more floors at the property.

Versant will now occupy a total of six floors across 249,054 square feet at the Columbia Property Trust-owned building in an extended, 18-year deal, according to sources. The asking rents ranged from $70 to $85 per square foot.

In last year’s deal, the NBCUniversal spinoff leased BuzzFeed’s former space on the eighth through 10th floors of the 16-story Midtown office building while it figured out its future. As Jeff Mayzurk, Versant’s president of operations and technology, said at the time, the space was known internally at the company as a “summer camp.”

But Versant, Comcast’s corporate cable channel spinoff founded in May 2025, liked the landmarked building so much, it has decided to remain in place and expand to the 11th, 12th and 14th floors (there’s no 13th floor).  

Versant’s new, expanded space at the former home of The New York Times will feature a large outdoor terrace on the 12th floor, as well as custom-built studios for its media brands, which now include MS Now, USA Network, Golf Channel, E!, SYFY and Oxygen. The cable channel conglomerate also includes digital platforms Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and GolfPass. Its CNBC studios remain in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., with another outpost at the nearby NASDAQ site in Times Square.

Columbia Property Trust — which owns the office portion of the property — was represented in-house in the deal by Ted Koltis and Maria Blake.

“Versant’s expanding commitment further establishes 229 West 43rd Street as a pre-eminent destination for leading media and technology companies and continues the building’s evolution into a modern-day office home for cutting-edge media and entertainment brands in the heart of Midtown,” Koltis said. “We are proud to support Versant’s next chapter of growth at a building whose storied media legacy began over a century ago with The New York Times.”

The 1913-built property between Seventh and Eighth avenues is now 96 percent leased, with tenants including social media app Snapchat.

Versant was represented in its new deal by a CBRE team of Timothy Dempsey, J. Paul Stimpfle, Marlee Teplitzky and Mary Ann Tighe. 

“Since moving into 229 West 43rd Street, our focus has been on standing up state-of-the-art studios and creating the infrastructure to support our live production,” Versant’s Mayzurk said.

“With this expansion and long-term lease extension, we are turning what began as a temporary New York corporate office into Versant’s home in the city, building on that foundation with additional collaborative space, an employee dining hub, and the technology infrastructure and production capabilities to support our brands efficiently and help power where Versant is going next,” Mayzurk added.

Construction on the “Annex” building designed by Mortimer J. Fox began in 1912 with the first presses for The New York Times running in 1913. Its iconic, pyramidal cupola was added in 1924, with the final wing completed by Empire State Building architects Shreve, Lamb & Harmon in 1947. The building was designated an official landmark by New York City in 2001.  Printing of the Times ceased there in 1997, with editorial functions ending in 2007 when newspaper staff moved to its new nearby tower.

Columbia Property Trust purchased the property’s office portion in July 2015 for $516 million from Blackstone. The lower levels of retail space — including much that has entrances along West 44th Street — is now owned by Forum at Times Square, which paid just $28 million for it in 2025, when 160,000 square feet of the total 250,000 square feet was vacant.