Vornado finds replacement for Microsoft on Sixth Avenue

Publisher Hachette Book Group has inked a deal for 137,000 square feet at Vornado Realty Trust’s 1290 Sixth Avenue, filling more than half of a block to be vacated by longtime tenant Microsoft.

Hachette, which publishes bestselling authors Malcolm Gladwell and Nicholas Sparks, will occupy nearly half of the 43-story building’s fourth and fifth floors — space that came up for grabs when software behemoth Microsoft announced plans to relocated to the spec office tower 11 Times Square by February 2014, Crain’s reported.

The publisher will be moving from RXR Realty and Walton Street Capital’s 237 Park Avenue, where it has been located for six years.

“The central location puts us close to literary agencies, publishers and the media,” a Hachette spokesperson told Crain’s.

Neil Goldmacher of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented Hachette in the deal, while Bruce Mosler’s Cushman & Wakefield team worked on behalf of the landlord. Vornado executive Glen Weiss, who is in charge of the company’s leasing portfolio, also had a hand in the deal.

State Street Bank signed a lease for 100,000 square feet in the building earlier this year, and Morgan Stanley picked up 150,000 square feet in May. [Crain’s] — Julie Strickland