Malkin inks law firm to 10-year deal in trophy tower

Malkin Holdings, the firm that controls 1 Grand Central Place, has signed a 10.5-year lease with law firm Hafetz Necheles & Rocco to take the building’s entire 36th floor, Crain’s reported.

Asking rents for the 12,720-square-foot space were $59 per square foot, and William Cohen and Ryan Kass of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented the tenant and the landlord, according to Crain’s.

The deal is one of several recent leases signed at the 55-story property, located across East 42nd Street from Grand Central Station. Research and consulting firm Gerson Lehrman Group agreed to lease 65,000 square feet at the property last week.

“The deal with Hafetz is an example of how we’re attracting a pretty wide range of tenants,” Tom Durels, an executive at Malkin Holdings, told Crain’s. “We have firms in financial services, private equity, professional services, the legal industry and it’s because of the work we’ve done to improve this building.”

Malkin Holdings plans to include the property as the second largest in an estimated $5 billion portfolio, to include the Empire State Building, that it hopes to take public in a real estate investment trust by the end of the year. Andrew Penson, owner of Grand Central Terminal, was unmasked last week as the source of a $710 million bid to Purchase One Grand Central Place. [Crain’s] — Julie Strickland