Publisher Reed Elsevier to take 71,000 square feet at Invesco’s Helmsley Building

Reed Elsevier, the London and Amsterdam-based publisher of LexisNexis, is on the verge of signing a 71,083-square-foot lease at Invesco’s Helmsley Building in the Grand Central submarket, The Real Deal has learned from CompStak, but a source familiar with the discussions insisted that no deal had yet been finalized.

Reed Elsevier will pay rents in the mid-$50s for the entire seventh floor in a 10-year deal, the CompStak data show.

The 34-story, 1.29 million-square-foot tower is located at 230 Park Avenue between 45th and 46th streets. The space — once occupied by JPMorgan Chase and its predecessor Bear Stearns — was being marketed by Jones Lang LaSalle’s Paul Glickman, Jonathan Fanuzzi, Frank Doyle and David Kleiner, on behalf of property manager and part owner Monday Properties, according to office space listings site 42Floors. The building is anchored by Dutch insurance giant ING, which had 220,000 square feet at the property as of April 2012, according to the New York Observer.

None of the involved brokers responded to requests for comment by press time, nor did Monday Properties’ director Jordan Berger. A spokesperson for Reed Elsevier declined to comment.

Reed Elsevier’s current 73,332-square-foot space at SL Green Realty’s 125 Park Avenue — between East 41st and East 42nd streets — is set to expire in January 2014, according to CoStar.

The Helmsley Building has had a checkered past. In June 2011, Invesco completed a $750 million recapitalization of the building — valuing it at about $635 per square foot — and replaced Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall real estate fund as Monday’s partner. Invesco took a 95 percent stake in the property, while Monday retained a 5 percent stake, according to Real Capital Analytics.

At the height of the market in 2007, Goldman and Monday paid $1.15 billion — or $948 per square foot — to a partnership between Dubai-based Istithmar World and Island Capital Group, chaired by billionaire investor Andrew Farkas, for the property.

Correction: A previously published version of this story said that the deal with Reed Elsevier had been signed. A source familiar with the deal said that the transaction has yet to close. The story also said that Reed Elsevier would become the building’s largest tenant, which is incorrect.