Sterne Agee leases another floor at 277 Park

Financial services company Sterne Agee has increased its New York office space at 277 Park Avenue by 50 percent, Crain’s reported. Stern Agee initially leased space at the 50-story tower in August 2011. It will now lease the building’s 26th floor for about 10 years. Rents in the building, which is largely occupied by JPMorgan Chase, are roughly in the $60s and $70s per square foot, Crain’s reported.

“At this point, we’re doing everything we can to grow,” William Holbrook, the chief operating officer of the Birmingham, Ala.-based firm, told Crain’s. “This opportunity came up and we took it.”

Although Holbrook declined to specify what type of staff the new space would house or whether the firm would grow further, last year the company announced it had reached a deal with Florida-based investment firm Meg Green & Associates to provide trading and other services.

Andrew Sachs of Cushman & Wakefield represented Stern Agee in the deal. In Other Park Avenue news, Norway’s $650 billion sovereign wealth fund bought a stake in a 292,061-square-foot office tower at 470 Park Avenue South in February, as previously reported. [Crain’s] –Hayley Kaplan