City’s HRA takes 200K sf at 375 Pearl Street

Lease continues a strong start to activity in Lower Manhattan this year

Rendering of 375 Pearl Street's renovation (Credit: Sabey)
Rendering of 375 Pearl Street's renovation (Credit: Sabey)

The city’s Human Resources Administration signed a lease for nearly 200,000 square feet at the former Verizon building at 375 Pearl Street, continuing a run of big-ticket leases in Lower Manhattan so far this year.

The city agency signed a 20-year lease for 193,821 square feet in the building, sources told The Real Deal. The lease covers part of the 20th floor and floors 21 through 25.

The financials of the deal weren’t clear, but asking rents in the building are reportedly in the range of $45 to $51 per square foot.

The HRA is relocating from the 15-story property at 250 Church Street in Tribeca, which owner Norvin Properties plans to convert into 107 residential units.

The deal comes after Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration reportedly put a freeze earlier this year on office leases, and is another big score for what had long been considered one of the ugliest buildings in the city.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Bob Giglio and George Keller represented the city, while Gregg Rothkin and Gerry Miovski of CBRE represented the building’s owners, Seattle-based Sabey Data Center Properties and Youngwoo & Associates.

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In 2011, Sabey and Youngwoo paid $120 million to buy 29 floors in the 32-story tower out of foreclosure, and embarked on a renovation that replaced the concrete exterior wall on 15 upper stories with floor-to-ceiling glass windows.

Last year, Sabey signed the city’s Department of Finance to more than 180,000 square feet in the building on the 26th through 30th floors, right above the HRA space.

Lower Manhattan’s leasing market got off to a hot start this year with more than 2.3 million square feet of deals inked during the first three months, the best quarter on record in the past two years, according to JLL.

Spotify’s 380,000-square-foot lease at 4 World Trade Center, the state Attorney General’s 340,000-square-foot-plus deal at 28 Liberty and Aon Insurance’s 200,000-square-foot lease at 1 Liberty Plaza were among the largest new leases inked in the city during the first quarter.

The Royal Bank of Canada also renewed for more than 400,000 square feet at 200 Vesey Street at Brookfield Place, and IPsoft did a renewal and expansion for nearly 140,000 square feet at 17 State Street.

(To view more office leasing transactions in Lower Manhattan, click here)