NYC Law rules in favor of Woolworth Building for new digs

The New York City Law Department is slated to take 32,000 square feet of office space at the iconic Woolworth Building in the Financial District, The Real Deal has learned.

The department’s Tort Division will occupy the entire fifth floor at the 57-story skyscraper at 233 Broadway, according to data via the Department of City Planning’s land use application tracking system.

While the city has yet to sign a lease, it is understood to have agreed to a deal that will see the tort division expand beyond the Law Department’s current space one block away, at SL Green Realty’s 100 Church Street.

A spokesperson for the Law Department declined to comment. The Lawrence Group, which handles leasing at the Woolworth Building on behalf of landlords Witkoff Group and Cammeby’s International Group [TRData], did not return requests for comment.

Asking rent for the fifth floor space at the Woolworth Building is $55 per square foot, according to office listings website 42Floors.

The space was previously occupied by late trial attorney Johnnie Cochran’s Cochran Firm, which downsized last year to 10,000 square feet at Harbor Group International’s 55 Broadway.

Woolworth Building owners Witkoff Group [TRData], led by Steve Witkoff, and Cammeby’s, led by Rubin Schron, sold the top 30 floors of the iconic Lower Manhattan tower to an investment group led by Alchemy Properties [TRData] for $68 million in 2012.

Alchemy has since helmed the transformation of the building’s upper portion into ultra-luxury residential condos, the sales of which have reportedly disappointed. The Woolworth Building’s 9,400-square-foot penthouse unit, dubbed the “Pinnacle,” initially asked $110 million, as TRD reported.