BNY Mellon homes in on new headquarters location

The Bank of New York Mellon announced its plans to move the company’s Wall Street headquarters in the first quarter. Now, they have a choice to make: Jersey City or Lower Manhattan?

The investment bank is weighing leases at two possible locations. One is in the 2.7 million-square-foot tower at 225 Liberty Street, while the other is in a 410,000-square-foot waterfront building at 70 Hudson Street in Jersey City.

While a move to Jersey City would be the less costly option, with Class A office rents on New Jersey’s Hudson waterfront averaging $38.94 per square foot, the company has occupied space in Lower Manhattan since the founding of its predecessor, Bank of New York, in 1784.

“It’s important for New York to retain the stature of downtown as one of the key financial markets in the world,” Peter Hennessy, president of the New York Tri-State Region for Cassidy Turley, told Bloomberg,

BNY Mellon is also looking looking to sell its current 52-story office building at 1 Wall Street. Bids on the building were projected to reach as high as $600 million — or around $600 per square foot  — which would make it one of the highest per-square-foot prices for a Lower Manhattan building of that size, Bloomberg reported.

A spokesperson for the bank told Bloomberg that a final decision on the move is expected by the beginning of the third quarter. [Bloomberg] — Sasha von Oldershausen