Verizon to rent or sell chunk of FiDi headquarters

As part of efforts to consolidate and cut costs, Verizon is planning on selling or leasing roughly half the space inside its 31-story headquarters, Bloomberg News reported. The company will keep the first 10 floors of the property, which is located at 140 West Street, across from the World Trade Center site.

Real estate investors are headed to the building this week to ascertain its potential uses, which include hotel, residences and retail, according to a statement from the communications giant cited by Bloomberg.

“Lower Manhattan — especially the World Trade Center neighborhood — is destined to be an important tourist and commercial center for the world, and the plan that Verizon is proposing is in concert with that grand vision for the area,” said John Vazquez, Verizon’s vice president of global real estate, in the statement.

Consolidation efforts have also had Verizon sell off parts of 1095 Sixth Avenue and 375 Pearl Street — the latter of which is now the country’s tallest data center. [Bloomberg News] —Zachary Kussin