Financial firms lease up Vornado’s unglamorous 330 Madison

UPDATED: 6:04 p.m., Jan. 14, 2013

A handful of big-name financial firms leased space in the relatively lackluster office tower 330 Madison Avenue, despite rising rents.

New tenants include Abbott Downing, a subsidiary of Wells Fargo; Tiger Legatus Management, a spinoff of the hedge fund giant Tiger Management; Kokino, a wealth management firm; and Chimney Rock, a boutique investment firm. Although landlord Vornado Realty Trust, the city’s largest commercial owner, is asking more than $80 per square foot in some spaces, each company picked up 5,000 square feet of space on varying floors. London-based bank HSBC leased 75,000 square feet at the end of 2013.

Even more deals are in the works, Frank Doyle, a Jones Lang LaSalle broker who represents Vornado, told Crain’s.

“The building has gotten to the point where it really has begun to attract these top-tier financial firms and other boutique users that in the past never really considered this neighborhood or this property for their space,” Doyle told Crain’s. The building sits at the northwest corner of 42nd Street and Madison Avenue.

LaSalle itself leased 82,000 square feet of 330 Madison in 2010 to relocate its headquarters. Vornado attributes its the building’s newfound popularity to recent renovations and good reviews from investment firm Guggenheim Partners, which leased 200,000 square feet there in 2011. [Crain’s] — Angela Hunt

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the parent company for Tiger Legatus Management.