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Drug maker Intercept Pharma inks 85K sf lease at Related’s 55 Hudson Yards
Firm will lease 49K sf in neighborhood as it waits for new building to be completed
UPDATED, Dec. 9, 3:00 p.m.: Cutting-edge pharma firm Intercept Pharmaceuticals has finalized a deal for its new headquarters at the Related Companies’ 55 Hudson Yards.
The $2.62 billion drug maker, which is racing to find a cure for a little-understood liver disease, inked a lease for 85,000 square feet spread across the 23rd through 25th floors of the under-construction 55 Hudson Yards.
But Intercept, which is currently headquartered in the Meatpacking District, won’t have to wait until the building is finished to move to the new neighborhood.
That’s because the company also locked in a deal to take 49,000 square feet in the interim at the developer’s 10 Hudson Yards, which opened earlier this year.
Intercept signed a lease for the full 40th floor at the 1.7 million-square-foot tower that’s now home to fashion retailer Coach, running from April next year through 2021. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the rent payment comes out to $5.2 million per year.
Meanwhile, Intercept is the fifth tenant to sign a deal at the 1.3 million-square-foot 55 Hudson Yards. When the building is finished in 2018, the pharma firm will join the law firms Boise, Schiller & Flexner and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy as well as financial companies Point72 and MarketAxxess who have already locked down space in the 51-story building.
Annual payments there will start off at $7.9 million for the first five years, dropping down to $8.7 million thereafter. Designed by Eugene Kohn of Kohn Pedersen Fox, 55 Hudson Yards is being developed by Related, Mitsui Fudosan America and Oxford Properties Group.
A spokesperson for Related said the company was pleased to be able to “meet both [Intercept’s] short-term and long-term needs.”
A representative for Intercept could not be immediately reached for comment. Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s Paul Ippolito, Ira Rovitz and Seth Weinstein represented the tenant in the negotiations. Related’s Stephen Winter negotiated for the owners along with CBRE’s Robert Alexander, Howard Fiddle and Emily Jones.
The news comes on the heels of a blockbuster deal Related negotiated with money manager BlackRock to lease 850,000 square feet at the Norman Foster-designed 50 Hudson Yards, the fourth and final office tower for the first phase of the 18 million-square-foot megaproject.
This post was updated to include a comment from Related.