Branding company VSA latest to take space in Hudson Square

Design specialist to consolidate offices in deal for 25,000 square feet

95 Morton Street
95 Morton Street

VSA Partners, a branding firm that is beefing up its marketing activity, is heading to Hudson Square as the company moves to consolidate offices in SoHo and Chelsea.

The company, which has served clients like Harley-Davidson and the city of Chicago in its bid for the 2016 Olympics, is planning on moving to Brickman Properties’ 95 Morton Street in Hudson Square as soon as the space’s buildout is complete. Brickman was represented in-house on the 10-year, 25,000 square-foot lease and VSA was repped by Brian Fennelly of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. Neither VSA nor Brickman could be immediately reached for comment.

VSA will move to the seventh floor, which is now partially occupied by the BMW i Ventures business incubator.  Other tenants in the century-old former industrial building include the online shopping company FAB.com and SAP software, which will be heading to Related’s first Hudson Yards office tower in 2019.

Fennelly said his client had been looking to double its footprint in two separate offices and found Hudson Square — a neighborhood that is beginning to transform with new development projects after last year’s rezoning — attractive at its price point.

Tech, advertising, media and information tenants (known as TAMI companies) that have traditionally been based in Midtown South are now beginning to look at the submarket of Hudson Square as a less expensive option, Fennelly said.

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“If they want to save a few bucks on rent per square foot, they’re starting to look at Hudson Square as an alternative,” he said.

VSA signed at $60 per square foot, Fennelly said. In Midtown South, office rents averaged about $67 per square foot in July, according to the most recent market report by CBRE.

Founded in Chicago in 1982, the firm has offices in the Windy City and Detroit as well as two here in New York: one at 106 7th Avenue in Chelsea and another at Zar Properties NY’s 42 Greene Street in SoHo, both of which have the company’s approximately 5,500 square-foot blocs listed on CoStar.

VSA has traditionally been known for its design work, but has recently made a few hires to grow its consumer-marketing business, according to a report in AdAge.