L&L Holding signs publisher Abrams to 42K sf in FiDi

Book publisher Abrams signed a lease for just shy of 42,000 square feet of office space at L&L Holding Company’s 195 Broadway in the Financial District.

Abrams, publisher of children’s titles such as the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series, is taking the full ninth floor of the 29-story, 1 million-square-foot building, the Commercial Observer reported.

Abrams will be relocating from 115 West 18th Street. The asking rent in the 15-year deal was $59 per square foot.

L&L [TRDataCustom] bought the property in 2005 for $206 million, and recapitalized it in November alongside Beacon Capital Partners by selling the majority interest to JP Morgan for $498.5 million. The owners pumped $50 million in redeveloping the lobby over an eight-year period, creating 50,000 square feet of retail space.

Drew Nieporent’s trendy Japanese restaurant Nobu signed a 15-year lease for 14,384 square feet on the ground floor in February 2015. The restaurant and clothing store Anthropologie, are expected to open this year.

Other office tenants in the building include advertising-technology company Rocket Fuel, human resources firm Namely and the chic fashion brand Gucci.

L&L leasing director Andrew Wiener represented the landlord in-house, while Mark Mandell and Dan D’Agnes of Cushman & Wakefield negotiated on behalf of Abrams. [CO] – Rich Bockmann