JLL wins 1M sf BlackRock leasing assignment

Asset manager BlackRock tapped JLL to find a new, million-square-foot office space in Manhattan, according to sources familiar with the talks.

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with $4.5 trillion in funds under management, currently has two Manhattan offices at 55 East 52nd Street and Rudin Management Company’s 40 East 52nd Street. Its 242,000-square-foot lease at Fisher Brothers and Soho China’s 55 East 52nd Street expires in 2023, according to CoStar. Sources said JLL’s tri-state president Peter Riguardi is heading the assignment.

Bloomberg first reported in January that the firm may be in the market for new space.

Chicago-based JLL is competing with rival brokerages CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE and Newmark, Grubb Knight Frank for the title of Manhattan’s most prolific leasing firm. In The Real Deal’s most recent ranking, published March 2015, JLL came in second behind CBRE with 10.4 million square feet in leases closed in 2014.

It wasn’t immediately clear which other brokerages bid on the assignment, or whether BlackRock is looking to move into a single building.

Other large tenants currently rumored to be in the market for a million square feet or more in Manhattan include Deutsche Bank and Samsung.