Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to sublet 35K feet at Starrett-Lehigh

Struggling media company looks to unload space

Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart

Updated at 10 a.m., Nov. 21: Nearly 35,000 square feet of space currently occupied by the troubled media company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has hit the sublet market, industry sources said.

The hefty chunk of space at Chelsea’s Starrett-Lehigh building appeared on the real estate information site CoStar on Friday, and sources confirmed to The Real Deal today that it belongs to Martha Stewart Living. The publishing arm of homemaking guru Martha Stewart’s empire has more than 200,000 square feet at the RXR Realty-owned building at 601 West 26th Street, according to CoStar.

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank brokers Scott Brown and Robert Silver have the listing for the 10th-floor space. Silver was not available for comment and Brown declined to comment.

The space is available from April 2013 through January 2018, and boasts Hudson River views, according to CoStar. Rents at Starrett-Lehigh are reportedly more than $60 per square foot.

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Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia — which handles web, print and broadcast media for Martha Stewart Living, a television show and magazine hosted by Stewart — announced it was laying off about 70 employees, or 12 percent of its almost 600-person workforce, on Nov. 1, according to published reports.

The Starrett-Lehigh building, a 2.3 million-square-foot property that is also home to Tommy Hilfiger’s corporate offices, suffered flooding during Hurricane Sandy and re-opened last week.

Additional reporting by Adam Pincus