Durst says it could fill “150 percent” of Condé Nast’s old 4 Times Square space

The Durst Organization’s 4 Times Square office tower won’t be reeling from the departure of anchor tenant Condé Nast much longer, with the landlord receiving “enough proposals to fill 150 percent” of the publisher’s vacant space, it said.

Durst is on track to fill 820,000 square feet at the 48-story tower left vacant by Condé Nast’s departure to 1 World Trade Center earlier this year, with executive Tom Bow saying that Durst is “in various stages of negotiations for the space.”

Though he declined to disclose specific tenants looking at 4 Times Square, Bow said they range in size from 80,000 to 350,000 square feet each, and that Durst expects to have several leases in place by the end of the year.

The landlord is also pouring $150 million into upgrading the 1.9 million-square-foot property, including renovating the lobby and elevators, according to Crain’s.

Condé Nast announced it was leaving 4 Times Square in 2011 to relocate to more than 1 million square feet at 1 World Trade Center, which is co-owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Durst Organization.

As part of that deal, the Port Authority agreed to take over Condé Nast’s lease at 4 Times Square, which runs to 2019 – with the agency responsible for covering annual rent payments for the publisher’s former space.

Even if leases are arranged for the Conde Nast space in the next weeks and months, the Port Authority will likely end up paying Durst a full year’s rent – more than $40 million.

Deals done for the Condé Nast space won’t be sublease transactions but rather direct leases with Durst, the landlord said – gradually freeing the Port Authority from its rent obligations as space is leased.

As it stands, the agency would be on the hook for $200 million over the remaining five years of Condé Nast’s lease at 4 Times Square. [Crain’s] – Rey Mashayekhi