UBS in talks to anchor 3 World Trade Center

Switzerland’s largest lender, UBS AG, is in talks to move its Stamford, Conn.-based U.S. investment bank to Larry Silverstein’s planned 3 World Trade Center tower by 2015. A source told Bloomberg News that the bank, which currently has New York City offices at 299 Park Avenue and 1285 Sixth Avenue, would take around 800,000 square feet at the 71-story, 2.1 million-square-foot skyscraper, which will have an alternate address of 175 Greenwich Street and is one of four that Silverstein is planning for the site. UBS completed the move to its Stamford facility, which houses the world’s largest trading floor, in 2002, but with its offices an hour from Manhattan, the bank is at somewhat of a competitive disadvantage when it comes to attracting talent. According to Bloomberg’s source, UBS has already moved some staffers from its equities and investment banking units to other office locations in New York City. A spokesperson for the bank said it currently has some 3 million square feet of office space under lease in the tri-state area. [Bloomberg]