TV production shop greenlights move to 180 Maiden Lane

True Entertainment, which produces "The Real Housewives of Atlanta," to relocate to 40K sf at MHP, Clarion building

180 Maiden Lane and the Real Housewives of Atlanta (credit Bravo)
180 Maiden Lane and the Real Housewives of Atlanta (credit Bravo)

The production company behind reality TV titles such as “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” and a slew of spouse-themed spinoffs is settling down at 180 Maiden Lane.

True Entertainment signed a lease to take 40,000 square feet at the 41-story office tower MHP Real Estate Services and Clarion Partners are in the midst of repositioning in Lower Manhattan.

The production company and sister firm Original Media will be moving into the entire 12th floor and part of the 13th floor at the 1.19 million-square-foot building by the end of the year. They’ve already filed plans to connect the two floors via an internal staircase.

Asking rent for the 10-year deal was $55 per square foot.

Company co-presidents Steven Weinstock and Glenda Hersch, who founded the True Entertainment in 2000, decided to relocate firm along with Original Media.

True Entertainment will make the move from RXR Realty’s Starrett Lehigh Building. Original Media has offices in Hudson Square at Tishman Speyer’s 175 Varick Street and 345 Hudson Street, owned by Trinity Real Estate and Norges Bank. It’s not clear if both offices will be consolidated.

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Norman Sturner’s MHP [TRDataCustom] and Clarion Partners paid $470 million in January 2015 to buy the Financial District property at 180 Maiden Lane, which had a hole of about 800,000 vacant square feet to fill. The effort to fill the building has gone slowly, but the owners are hoping that new additions to the Seaport area – including the 500-seat iPic theater set to open later this week – will help draw further interest to the property.

The partners have pumped $50 million into improvements such as a 5,000-square-foot indoor turf lawn under the building’s vast atrium, a 250-seat cafeteria and a 150-seat conference center.

“The building conference facility is beneficial in another way, in that it helps companies reduced their occupier square footage,” a spokesperson for the project said, noting the building has been a draw with tech companies.

The landlords kicked off 2016 by signing jewelry e-tailer Chloe + Isabel to 30,000 square feet and have signed the business-training center MicroTek to slightly more than 20,000 square feet.

And the city’s Department of Investigation is reportedly looking to lease more than 300,000 square feet at the tower, which would eat up a big chunk of the remaining 700,000-square-foot vacancy.

A team at Cushman & Wakefield made up of Tara Stacom, Justin Royce, Frank Cento and Rob Lowe represented the landlord, as well as MHP brokers Jesse Rubens, Richard Doolittle and James Tamborlane. Howard Hersch and Michael Berg at JLL represented True Entertainment.