Beam Suntory will move HQ to 11 Madison Ave from Chicago

Liquor brand signed 100K sf lease at SL Green’s building

From left:  11 Madison Avenue, Beam Suntory CEO Albert Baladi and SL Green CEO Marc Holliday (Photos via Beam Suntory; SL Green)
From left: 11 Madison Avenue, Beam Suntory CEO Albert Baladi and SL Green CEO Marc Holliday (Photos via Beam Suntory; SL Green)

Beam Suntory is making a big move from Chicago to New York.

The liquor giant, which produces whisky brands such as Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark, has signed a 15-year lease at the former Metropolitan Life North Building at 11 Madison Avenue, the landlord, SL Green Realty Corp., announced. The company plans to relocate sometime next year.

Beam Suntory will take the building’s entire 12th floor, totaling nearly 100,000 square feet. The new office will serve as the company’s global headquarters, as well as an office for its parent company, Suntory Holdings of Osaka, Japan.

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Beam Suntory’s global HQ has been based in Chicago, initially in suburban Deerfield and later downtown at the Merchandise Mart, where it leases about 110,000 square feet. The company told the Chicago Tribune that it will continue to employ more than 400 people in its Chicago office, which will remain its largest office.

SL Green did not disclose how much Beam Suntory will pay in rent. But The Real Deal previously reported that Credit Suisse, which occupies about 1.3 million square feet at 11 Madison, pays $65 per square foot. Sony, which occupies about 579,000 square feet, pays about $74 per square foot. Yelp, which recently indicated that it would be open to subleasing its space within the building, pays about $85 per square foot.

In 2015, SL Green purchased the 2.3 million-square-foot tower from the Sapir Organization and CIM Group for $2.6 billion. A year later, the REIT sold a 40 percent stake of the building to Prudential’s PGIM Real Estate for $480 million.

CBRE’s David Kleinhandler, James Whalen, Maura Flanagan and Joe Cybulski represented Beam Suntory, while Newmark’s Brian Waterman, Scott Klau, Erik Harris and Brent Ozarowski represented SL Green in this transaction.