Law firm Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe is expected to sign a lease for 220,000 square feet at Black Rock, the CBS-owned building at 51 West 52nd Street, sources told the New York Observer. Orrick will take the space previously occupied by UBS and Cushman & Wakefield. Cushman will be consolidating its Midtown offices at 1290 Avenue of the Americas. Sources told the Observer that UBS paid more than $32 million to end its lease early. CBS is applying that money to Orrick’s deal, reducing the firm’s rent. Orrick was looking at a 300,000-square-foot space in Boston Properties’ Citigroup Center last year, but the deal fell through. Orrick is leaving a 240,000-square-foot space at 666 Fifth Avenue.

Citigroup Center name changed to 601 Lexington Avenue: Boston
Properties has been talking about changing the name of the Citigroup
Center for almost a year, and just officially renamed the Class A
office building 601 Lexington Avenue. The 59-story property currently
has 45,000 square feet of direct space available, with tenants
including Citibank, Kirkland & Ellis and Merrill Lynch. Jones Lang
LaSalle is exclusively representing Boston Properties in leasing office
space in the building. TRD [more]

General Motors’ bankruptcy could have repercussions for Mort
Zuckerman’s Boston Properties, which owns the GM Building. General
Motors’ lease for 101,000 square feet at the GM Building expires in
March 2010, and the company’s 120,000-square-foot lease at another
Boston Properties building, 601 Lexington Avenue — the former
Citigroup Center — began on Monday, and expires in May 2019. GM hasn’t
begun construction on the new space, according to a source familiar
with the building. According to a document Boston Properties filed with
the SEC, GM’s bankruptcy gives it the right to reject the leases at any
time, but Boston could, in turn, file a claim for damages, which would
be subject to the limitations under the bankruptcy laws and
availability of funds to pay creditors. [more]