Art Institute moves to Kaufman’s 218 West 40th Street

The Art Institute of New York City is bidding adieu to Soho and moving to Midtown digs, The Real Deal has learned.

The institution for education in art, fashion, filmmaking and design will vacate its longtime headquarters — a 62,539-square-foot spread at HFZ Capital’s 30 Varick Street — for a 45,000-square-foot sublease at 218 West 40th Street, according to CompStak.

The 12-story, 157,516-square-foot building, between Seventh and Eighth avenues, is owned by a partnership of the Kaufman Organization and Block Buildings, according to CoStar Group. The Art Institute will pay rents in the mid-$40s per square foot for the space, CompStak data show.

The sublessor appears to be the New School, data from CoStar indicate, which had a total of 78,400 square feet at the building but currently only occupies about 22,900 square feet. This fall, the New School moved to a spanking new 354,000-square-foot campus designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill at 65 Fifth Avenue.

Representatives for the New School couldn’t immediately be reached, nor could representatives for HFZ.

CBRE’s Michael Politi and David Kleinhandler represented the sublessor, while Cassidy Turley’s Jonathan Schindler represented the Art Institute. One of the brokers involved in the deal confirmed the transaction but declined to comment further, while the other brokers could not be reached by press time.