LinkedIn expands out at Empire State Building

Social networking website LinkedIn is once again spreading its tentacles at the Empire State Building. LinkedIn will take a further 44,000 square feet at the tower, The Real Deal has learned, bringing its total presence there to about 160,000 square feet.

In late 2009, LinkedIn took its first 6,000-square-foot space in the 102-story, 2.9-million-square-foot tower, located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, in the form of a sublease. It has been rapidly expanding ever since. The new deal, which closed in mid-February, will see the company take over a portion of the 24th floor and the entire 28th floor. Asking rents for the floors are in the mid-$50s per square foot.

“The way the building’s lease expirations rolled allowed for a very creative expansion,” said CBRE’s Sacha Zarba, who represented LinkedIn. “It’s very hard to find a building that can potentially work for your client five years down the line, but when you have a company that projects such explosive growth as LinkedIn, you have to think that way.”

The building, which is the flagship property in the recently-formed Empire State Realty Trust, was represented in-house by Ryan Kass and by Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s Billy Cohen.

Last month, the State Appellate Court ruled that Malkin Holdings’ buyout provision for shareholders who voted against taking the Empire State Building public was legal.