Hachette Filipacchi, the publisher that recently lost out to beauty giant Avon in talks to take over several open floors at the William Kaufman Organization’s 777 Third Avenue, is reportedly closing in on a deal at the 48-story Time-Life Building at 1271 Avenue of the Americas in Rockefeller Center. The contract would be for 132,000 square feet of space previously occupied by Lehman Brothers, which had subleased the three floors from Time Inc. Hachette would be downsizing significantly from its current 263,010 square feet at 1633 Broadway, which is owned by Paramount. Deloitte is also expected to vacate 1633 Broadway soon, in a move that could leave the door open for television network A&E. Currently located at 235 East 45th Street, A&E is in the market for 350,000 square feet of space and is rumored to have looked at the Empire State Building and Worldwide Plaza in addition to Paramount’s building. [Post]

Things are looking up for the New York City hotel industry, which is
celebrating a rebound in occupancy from earlier this year. Manhattan
was the only market in the country, besides New Orleans, to report a
double-digit occupancy, up 10.5 percent this year to 88.1 percent,
according to data from Smith Travel Research for the week ending Dec.
12. While hotel occupancy in Manhattan has risen dramatically from levels
as low as 55 percent, the average daily rate continues to be lower than
record levels achieved in 2007. Nevertheless, the increase in occupancy represents a significant
improvement to a market where more than 30 new hotels have opened
during the year. Many of these new limited-service and boutique hotels,
including Hotel Indigo, Ace Hotel and Crosby Street Hotel, have registered occupancy at nearly 90 percent. From a national perspective, travelers are going to have it good next year. [more]

With the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation’s October decision to relocate 1,600 employees from an office at 55 Water Street in Manhattan’s Financial District to New Jersey, commercial real estate experts are suggesting that other large tenants may also follow suit. Accounting group Deloitte has suggested that it may relocate as many as 1,400 jobs from its two Manhattan office locations at Two World Financial Center and 1633 Broadway, over to New Jersey or Connecticut. As office space becomes increasingly expensive, New York City landlords are struggling to hold onto office tenants, the New York Observer reported. “Depository is perhaps the first of several we may see begin to explore” offices outside Manhattan, Pat Murphy, a vice chairman at CB Richard Ellis, said.