BNY Mellon looks to unload 52-story HQ at 1 Wall Street

From left: BNY Mellon's Gerald Hassell and 1 Wall Street
From left: BNY Mellon's Gerald Hassell and 1 Wall Street

Bank of New York Mellon, joining the recent trend of financial companies looking to downsize, is eyeing the sale of its corporate headquarters building at 1 Wall Street.

The global bank has tapped CBRE Group to market the 52-story Art Deco building at Broadway, and Jones Lang LaSalle to find space for employees who currently work there.

Still, the firm “will only make the move if it makes sense financially,” BNY Mellon spokesman Kevin Heine told Bloomberg News, adding that the idea of moving the headquarters to the bank’s other downtown location at 101 Barclay Street was a possibility.

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The move, as with JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup recently, comes as the bank looks to scale back their offices to lower costs and improve efficiency. BNY Mellon has roughly 1,700 employees at 1 Wall Street and around 1 million square feet of space.

The bank will look for new digs in Lower Manhattan or Jersey City, two people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. BNY Mellon already has its Pershing financial advisory unit in Jersey City at 1 Pershing Plaza.

Bny Mellon Last Explored Selling Its Wall Street tower four years ago, but decided to stay in November 2010 citing concerns about making “any move that would increase expenses” coming out of the recession, spokesman Ron Gruendl told Bloomberg at the time. [Bloomberg News]Julie Strickland