Boston Properties inks big renewal with law firm at 599 Lex

Shearman & Sterling commits to 338K sf for another 20 years

Boston Properties CEO Owen Thomas (left), Shearman & Sterling's David Beveridge, and 599 Lexington Avenue (Credit: Wikipedia, Owen Thomas by Axel Dupeux)
Boston Properties CEO Owen Thomas (left), Shearman & Sterling's David Beveridge, and 599 Lexington Avenue (Credit: Wikipedia, Owen Thomas by Axel Dupeux)

Law firm Shearman & Sterling has been headquartered at 599 Lexington Avenue for three decades, and it now plans to stay around for two more — after making big upgrades to the office space.

Shearman and landlord Boston Properties announced Thursday that the tenant has renewed its 338,000-square-foot lease at the Midtown East building for 20 more years. The lease was originally set to expire in 2022.

“Renewing our lease enables us to design a space that will leverage technology [and] incorporate wellness and sustainability elements to provide a working environment that enables more collaboration and sparks even greater creativity and efficiencies for our people,” Shearman & Sterling’s Americas managing partner Lisa Brill said in a press release.

The global law firm occupies 13 floors at the 47-story building, which Boston Properties constructed in 1986. The renovations are set to begin this summer and wrap up by the end of 2023.

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The property, which contains an entry to the Lexington Avenue/51st Street subway station, is part of Boston Properties’ 4.5 million-square-foot midtown campus, which includes nearby 601 Lexington Avenue and 399 Park Avenue.

At 601 Lexington, also known as the Citigroup Center, the landlord recently brought in a 10,000-square-foot food hall from Anna Castellani, the creator of Downtown Brooklyn’s 27,000-square-foot DeKalb Market Hall.

In The Real Deal’s law firm ranking in 2018, Shearman & Sterling landed in 6th place by volume of real estate loan deals closed, with six buyer-side deals totalling $1.9 billion. The company notes that its 850-plus lawyers come from 60 countries and speak more than 60 languages.