CBRE Group closed three of 2012’s five biggest office leases

From left: 1515 Broadway, 1 New York Plaza, 250 West 55th Street, 601 Lexington Avenue and 1301 6th Avenue
From left: 1515 Broadway, 1 New York Plaza, 250 West 55th Street, 601 Lexington Avenue and 1301 6th Avenue

As 2012 wraps up, it appears that CBRE Group is taking the top spot for the most big-office leasing deals closed this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. CBRE represented tenants in three of 2012’s five biggest transactions: Kaye Scholer, at 250 West 55th Street, Viacom, at 1515 Broadway, and Citigroup, at 601 Lexington Avenue.

The year’s biggest office deal was Viacom’s renewal of its 1.6 million-square-foot lease in Times Square, which boasted a 15-year deal of about $1.2 billion — producing a $36 million commission for the CBRE — according to CompStak, a real-estate data service, cited by the Journal.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Matthew Van Buren, president of CBRE’s New York Tri-State Region, said all three companies “looked extraordinarily hard at new space.” Adding that “Every deal is a compromise of factors. The economics were so compelling that they decided to make existing space work.”

The total value of the top five deals this year was $3.4 billion, down from $4.5 billion last year, but with a larger total square footage of 3.76 million square feet versus 3.1 million square feet in 2011. The other two deals in the top five were Morgan Stanley’s 1.15 million-square-foot lease at 1 New York Plaza and law firm Chadbourne & Parke’s 180,00 square-foot lease at 1301 Sixth Avenue, which were both handled by Newmark Grubb Knight Frank for a total value of a total value of about $1.3 billion and a potential commission of some $39 million. [WSJ]Christopher Cameron