Ad giant inks commercial condo and lease at 3 Columbus Circle

From left: Mary Ann Tighe of CBRE, Jimmy Kuhn of Newmark and 3 Columbus CircleAdvertising behemoth the Young & Rubicam Group will move into 340,000 square feet at SL Green’s 3 Columbus Circle, in a commercial condominium purchase and lease, the New York Times reported. The move marks the last major advertising agency to defect from Madison Avenue, the street that is synonymous with the industry as a whole.

Young & Rubicam took a condo interest in 214,372 square feet on floors three through eight, and signed a 20-year lease for 124,760 square feet on floors 9, 10, 18 and 19 at the 26-story tower. Three Columbus Circle, also known as 1775 Broadway, occupies the entire block between Eighth Avenue and Broadway at 59th Street. The deal includes naming rights for the building.

Young & Rubicam as well as the Radius, BrandBuzz, Bravo, Kang & Lee, the KBM Group, VML, Wunderman and ZAAZ properties will be moving to the new space from 285 Madison Avenue. The primary reason for the move was that the firm was looking for more updated space, according to the Times.

Just a year ago, the 768,565-square-foot building was underwater, and Related Companies’ Stephen Ross took the opportunity to purchase the senior mortgage for one simple reason: to demolish the building he saw from his office window, the New York Times reported at the time. Luckily for 3 Columbus Circle’s troubled developer, Joseph Moinian, Manhattan’s largest office landlord swooped in. SL Green took a stake in the building, forming a partnership with Moinian and protecting the structure from Related’s takeover bid.

Moinian purchased the tower in 2004 and took out a $250 million mortgage on it two years later.

The massive commercial condo sale and lease should put the building back on the right track.

Young & Rubicam is a division of the world’s largest advertising agency, WPP Group plc, which is based in London and has 2,400 offices world wide.

Young & Rubicam was represented by CBRE’s Mary Ann Tighe, Gregory Tosko, Christopher Mansfield and Lauren Crowley. The landlord was represented by a Newmark Knight Frank team comprised of Jimmy Kuhn, Scott Klau, Brian Waterman, Erik Harris and Lance Korman. [NYT]