NY Stem Cell Foundation to lease 40K sf at Movielab building

The nonprofit New York Stem Cell Foundation is in talks to take 40,000 square feet on the second and third floors of the Movielab building at 619 West 54th Street in Hell’s Kitchen.

The organization plans to bring 62 employees to the building, adding almost that number against over the next three years. It’s also applied for $12 million in tax-exempt bonds through Build NYC, and has received exemptions worth over $19 million from city and state mortgage recording taxes.

Asking rent for the space is unknown, but Taconic Investment Partners, who bought the building in 2012, is asking $43 per square foot for the building’s eight floor, according to CoStar.

JRT Realty Group and Cushman & Wakefield are marketing the building for Taconic, the New York Post reported.

Taconic put the 10-story, 300,000-square-foot building on the market last year for $160 million, but found no buyers.

Back in May, Taconic received a hefty $200 million construction loan from Wells Fargo to develop another Hell’s Kitchen Property, the planned 392-unit, 466,000-square-foot rental building at 525 West 52nd Street.

The company sold its 63,000-square-foot office building at 837 Washington Street, which it owned with Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities, for $200 million to TIAA-CREF in January. [NYP, third item] – Ariel Stulberg