First tenant at Olayan Group’s 550 Madison takes 240K sf

Olayan Group and RXR Realty have landed their first tenant at the newly renovated 550 Madison Avenue.

Insurance firm Chubb has signed a lease for 240,000 square feet of office space, taking 10 floors of the 800,000-square-foot building. Chubb will be an anchor tenant in the 37-story tower, with more than 31 percent of the building’s rentable office space.

Chubb’s current headquarters are at the Durst Organization’s 1133 Sixth Avenue, where the company is leasing 184,000 square feet with a gross rent of $88.32 per square foot. The lease is set to expire in 2024.

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Olayan Group, which owns 550 Madison, and development partner RXR Realty redesigned the property, doubling the public open space at the site and adding greenery. The lobby was reimagined by Gensler and opened to the public earlier this year.

550 Madison (Gensler)

Luxury publisher Assouline was brought in to curate a library in the office tower as an exclusive amenity for tenants on the club level, which is being designed by Rockwell Group. The building itself was designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee.

Since its opening in 1984, the tower has had just two tenants: AT&T and Sony. The Olayan Group acquired 550 Madison in 2016 and the building became New York City’s youngest landmark in 2018. It will open as a multi-tenant building next year for the first time.

Despite being hit hard by the pandemic, office leasing has revived a bit in recent months, as employees are called back to in-person work following over a year of working from home.