Bank of New York Takes 192K-SF Sublease at 1 WTC

Bank of New York (BNY) has officially taken on a sublease from Condé Nast for four floors totaling over 192,000 square feet at One World Trade Center, completing a deal first reported as in the works by Commercial Observer back in May.

The New York Post was first to report completion of the deal.

BNY plans to occupy the space for four years while renovating its headquarters at 240 Greenwich Avenue, including upgrading the lobby and facade and adding new amenities, as CO previously reported.

BNY was represented by JLL. Condé Nast was represented by Scott Gottlieb of CBRE. The Durst Organization and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the building’s co-owners, were represented by Newmark.

Condé Nast has been at One World Trade Center since the building’s opening in 2014, having signed a lease for 1.2 million square feet over 23 floors in 2011. By 2018, though, the publisher sought to consolidate, hiring JLL to put 350,000 square feet on the sublease market.

Ambac Financial Group signed a 10-year sublease with Condé Nast for 50,000 square feet, comprising the entire 41st floor of the 104-story tower, in March 2019, followed by Ennead Architects taking 47,252 square feet the next month, according to CO. Asking rent for each sublease was around $60 per square foot. 

Condé Nast, seeking to reduce its footprint in the building, began withholding rent in January 2021, a move condemned by both Durst and the Port Authority, which both made note of the publisher’s rising stock price at the time. A statement from the publisher noted that the company was then in negotiations to bring its lease in line with market conditions and its updated (or downgraded) requirements. 

It was also reported around that time that Condé Nast was considering relocating some of its operations to New Jersey. The company paid back all the back rent, which had reached around $10 million by the end of April, by August of 2021.

The marketing firm Constellation Agency subleased the entire 48,000-square-foot 21st floor from Condé Nast in August 2021, followed by New York Life Insurance Company taking 47,355 square feet from the publisher on the building’s 39th floor in September 2022. The company unloaded the 48,026-square-foot 31st floor to Kroll in May 2024.

JLL, Gottlieb, Newmark and Condé Nast did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Larry Getlen can be reached at lgetlen@commercialobserver.com.