Bridgewater Closes 60K-SF Lease at 295 Fifth Avenue
By Mark Hallum September 30, 2024 11:16 am
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Bridgewater Associates has called many places home, including the two-bedroom apartment it was founded in as well as a barn in Connecticut. Now, the Nir Bar Dea-led hedge fund is officially opening its first office in Manhattan.
The hedge fund closed on a 60,000-square-foot lease at 295 Fifth Avenue owned by Tribeca Investment Group, PGIM Real Estate and Meadow Partners, the New York Post reported.
The asking rent and the length of the lease were not disclosed but the average asking rent for Midtown was $83.54 per square foot in the second quarter of 2024, according to a report from CBRE.
JLL (JLL)’s Matthew Astrachan, Simon Landmann, Andrew Lutzer and Lance Yasinsky represented Bridgewater in the deal.
“The Bridgewater team tasked JLL with finding an amenitized location within which they could have control over their space, enabling the firm to create an extraordinary environment to attract and retain best-in-class employees,” Astrachan said in a statement. “The all-new construction floors on the top of 295 Fifth met all of their criteria.”
Representatives for the landlord and CBRE (CBRE), which handles negotiations for the building, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Bridgewater could not be reached for comment.
The deal has been widely reported in recent weeks as the tenant and landlords have been in talks, and closed much to the shock of the New York Post. It will be a surprising change for Bridgewater, which has had all of its U.S. employees permanently work out of its Westport, Conn., headquarters.
Bridgewater’s current CEO, Nir Bar Dea, has moved to change the company’s old school ways, starting with a Manhattan outpost. It plans to keep its Connecticut headquarters, a source with knowledge of the deal previously told Commercial Observer.
Other tenants in the newly renovated 17-story, 700,000-square-foot tower include law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which signed a 132,000-square-foot lease in November 2023 following the $150 million refinancing of the building provided by Deutsche Pfandbriefbank in November 2022.
Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.
