Nomura departs, BofA downsizes at Brookfield’s World Financial Center

The U.S. subsidiary of Japan’s Nomura Holdings is departing the World Financial Center to take more than 900,000 square feet at Worldwide Plaza, George Comfort & Sons and RCG Longviews’ 1.8-million-square foot office tower on Eighth Avenue and 50th Street that is now 95% leased, the Wall Street Journal reported. The move is expected in 2013. The tower was valued at $600 million in 2009.

The decision is a letdown for Brookfield Office Properties, which has been trying to lure tenants to the financial center for the more than three million square feet of leases that expire in 2013.

In more bad news for Brookfield, Bank of America has tentatively agreed to retain about 750,000 square feet of space at the center, just less than a sixth of its current lease, according to Bloomberg News.

Bank of America’s downtown leases generate almost 10 percent of the New York-based landlord’s net operating income, John Stewart, an analyst at Green Street Advisors wrote in a May report.

The bank occupies about 2.7 million of the 4.6 million square feet it currenly leases at the financial center, the rest of which is rented to subtenants according to Brookfield’s regulatory filings.

Bank of America is “committed to both midtown and downtown Manhattan,” a spokesperson for the bank said. “At this point we aren’t prepared to discuss our future plans but we are always looking for ways to optimize our real estate portfolio.” [WSJ] and [Bloomberg News]