South Korean Government Signs 43K-SF Lease at 445 Park Avenue

The South Korean consulate is relocating its offices within Manhattan’s Plaza District.

The Consulate General of the Republic of Korea has signed a 43,493-square-foot lease at Circle Realty Group’s 445 Park Avenue, according to the landlord. Traded first posted the news.

The lease was completed on Jan. 15, according to the post by independent tenant broker Jeff Yi. The consulate is currently at 460 Park Avenue, half a block north of its new location.

Asking rent at 445 Park Avenue is $98 per square foot and the consulate signed a 10-year deal, according to Circle Realty’s Jay Futersak. The consulate required a separate entryway to facilitate security measures and welcome visitors seeking visas and other services, he said.

“They liked that we were able to offer them a building with a private entrance on East 56th Street, with their accessibility to the second and third floors,” Futersak told Commercial Observer. “Park Avenue has just become a really red hot corridor.”

Yi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The South Korean consulate’s offices are on the first floor, the entire second floor and parts of the third and fifth floors.

Other tenants in the 22-story office tower on Park Avenue between 56th and East 57th streets include financial planner F.L. Putnam Investment Management, which signed an 11-year lease for 6,000 square feet in September 2023. Another major tenant is the executive offices for Brown Harris Stevens.

However, the majority of the building’s office space is spread among 74 tenants under 10,000 square feet— an intentional decision by Futersak, who saw a major tenant downsize from 85,000 square feet to 5,000 square feet in 2019.

“I said, ‘What am I going to do with 80,000 square feet?’” Futersak said. “I started to develop this business niche of family offices, and it was really built on referral.”

The strategy of leasing primarily to smaller tenants worked, hedging the building against a repeat of the 2019 vacancy, Futersak said. 445 Park is 99.5 percent leased now that the deal with the consulate is closed, he added.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.