Trending
Empire State Realty Trust building closes 65K sf leasing deal
Infoservices firm Gerson Lehrman will move to One Grand Central Place
One Grand Central Place, the second-largest building in Malkin Holdings’ proposed Empire State Realty Trust, has signed research firm Gerson Lehrman to a 65,000-square-foot deal, The Real Deal has learned from CompStak.
Gerson Lehrman — which curates an online network of over 500,000 subject matter experts — will take the entire third floor and part of the fourth floor in the 12-year deal, the CompStak data show, and will pay rents in the high-$40s per square foot. Before the Gerson Lehrman deal, the building at 60 East 42nd Street was more than 90 percent leased, according to CoStar.
But the future of the tower, between Park and Madison avenues, is somewhat in flux. A mystery buyer has offered $710 million for the 55-story, 1.31 million-square-foot property, as Crain’s reported earlier today. The unsolicited bid tops the $609.1 million value that Malkin Holdings, which is championing the Empire State public offering, assigned to the property, Avison Young’s Jason Meister told The Real Deal. Meister represented Rubin Schron and Joseph Sitt in their separate bids to buy the Empire State Building — the crown jewel of the proposed real estate investment trust’s portfolio — in June.
Malkin Holdings was represented by Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s William Cohen, Julie Christiano, Ryan Kass and Jillian Santiago. Kass deferred to Malkin Holdings for comment, but a spokeswoman for the company was not immediately available. A spokesman for Gerson Lehrman was unavailable for comment.
Gerson Lehrman will relocate from its 36,385-square-foot ninth-floor space at Shorenstein Realty Services’ 850 Third Avenue, according to CompStak and CoStar, where they are currently paying rents in the mid-$40s per square foot.
Another expert network firm, AlphaSights, recently signed a deal at Blackstone Group’s 229 West 43rd Street, better known as the former New York Times building, as The Real Deal reported.
Recent leases at One Grand Central Place – formerly known as the Lincoln Building – include Allianz Real Estate of America, which took 7,000 square feet in May and is paying rent in the high $50s per square foot.