SL Green Realty has bought out its joint venture partner in Times Square’s 1515 Broadway, giving the city’s largest office landlord full ownership of the property in a transaction valuing it at $1.21 billion, the company announced today. SL Green had owned the 1.75 million-square-foot building with SITQ, a subsidiary of Canadian investment fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, one of several joint ventures for the pair throughout the city. TRD [more]

From the December issue: It’s the home of major media companies such as Viacom, the New York Times, Condé Nast, Reuters, Bertelsmann and Universal Music Group; broadcast studios for ABC, MTV, NASDAQ and others; headquarters of Morgan Stanley and law firms such as Proskauer Rose, Skadden Arps and Cravath Swaine & Moore. One-quarter of all hotels in Manhattan are there, along with Broadway theaters and some of the best retail in the world. And, oh, tens of millions of visitors annually come by.

So before the world’s eyes turn to Times Square for New Year’s Eve, it seemed like a good time to consider the state of the office market in the city’s most famous district. After all, some 200,000 people work in Times Square, 70 percent of them in finance and creative fields.

Let’s use the Times Square Alliance’s borders for the district: 40th Street to 53rd Street between Sixth and Eighth avenues, as well as Restaurant Row (46th Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues). [more]

EEmerge, an office business center subsidiary of SL Green Realty, has just moved into the 11th and 12th floors of SL Green-owned 1515 Broadway, the famous Times Square home of Viacom and site of MTV studios. The 54-story, 1.9 million-square-foot building, which counts Viacom as its main tenant, will now serve as eEmerge’s main headquarters. The affiliate group, which focuses on flexible and short-term office space, will be utilizing a total of 65,000 square feet in the 72 percent occupied building. TRD
[more]

SL Green Realty has closed on a $475 million refinancing of 1515 Broadway, home to Viacom International, the company announced today. The building, between 44th and 45th streets, is owned by SL Green in a joint venture with SITQ, a real estate investment, management and development subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, or the Quebec Deposit and Investment Fund. A syndicate led by the Bank of China provided the new five-year, floating rate mortgage. SL Green and SITQ replaced the former $625 million mortgage that was due to mature in November this year with longer-term financing. “We
were able to source this financing which required a lower equity
contribution than previously forecast,” said SL Green President Andrew
Mathias. TRD

MTV leaves 1515 Broadway (Photo source: PropertyShark.com)

One of Times Square’s most recognizable tenants, MTV, may soon be vacating the neighborhood. Its parent company, Viacom, has chosen not to renew its lease at 1515 Broadway between 44th and 45th streets. The music entertainment juggernaut moved into its glass-paneled digs back in 1997, when crime was high and rent was low, for around $40 per square foot. The Post estimated that rent in that neighborhood could now be more than 10 times what it was then. The space’s property manager, SL Green, has already begun marketing the spot.

The cable channel Showtime Networks is eyeing a move from its current
home in a Theater District skyscraper to a rehabilitated century-year-old building at 200 Fifth Avenue at Madison Square Park, several
sources said. Showtime, a division of the CBS Corporation, currently leases 172,600
square feet of space at the 2.4 million-square-foot 1633 Broadway at
51st Street; the lease is set to expire in 2010, according to data from
CoStar. Real estate investment company L&L Holding bought 200 Fifth Avenue,
at the corner of 23rd Street, in 2007 for $480 million and is pouring
another $120 million into the 800,000-square-foot building, where
advertising firm Grey Group is taking 370,000 square feet. [more]