For once, it’s Consolidated Edison cutting a large check to a building owner, and not the other way around. Crain’s reported that the Rockefeller Group will get $557,370 from Con Ed for improvements it made to cooling equipment in the Time-Life building, at 1271 Sixth Avenue, between 50th and 51st streets, under a commercial and industrial energy efficiency program. In addition, the Rockefeller Group will save nearly $1 million on its annual utility bill at 1271 Sixth Avenue. Though this instance is remarkable for the size of the subsidy, it’s actually one of 700 customer-generated projects across the city since the launch of the program. [more]

From left, Mitchell Steir, CEO of Studley, Jeffrey Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner and the Time Warner Center

Entertainment giant Time Warner picked commercial advisory firm Studley to conduct a study of the media company’s estimated 5 million square feet of office space in New York and New Jersey in anticipation of the bulk of it [more]

Lehman Brothers Holding, the bankrupt company now controlled by
restructuring firm Alvarez & Marshal, has signed a
150,000-square-foot sublease at 1271 Sixth Avenue from Time Inc., which
controls most of the building. At the same time, Lehman also ended the
500,000-square-foot sublease it has held at the building since 2007.
The new sublease has different time frames for different floors, a
source told the New York Post. Lehman has floors 35, 38 and 40, and
parts of floors 39 and 46. The terms of the lease were not disclosed.

Source: Colliers ABR

While commercial leasing activity has picked up in the past few months,
according to Colliers ABR’s Manhattan May office report (see report on jump), the city’s
Class A vacancy rate increased and average rents fell last month. The vacancy rate of Class A space in Manhattan reached 11.9 percent in
May, up from 11.3 in April. Class B and Class C availability also
increased last month, pushing the overall Manhattan vacancy rate to
13.1 percent, its highest level since reaching the same rate in
December 1996. Meanwhile, the average asking rent for Class A space
fell to $65.43 per square foot in May, down 4.9 percent from $68.83 a
foot a month earlier. TRD [more]