After a long, rumor-fulled shopping process, Chadbourne & Parke has finally settled on 1301 Sixth Avenue as a home for its headquarters, the New York Observer reported. The 110-year-old law firm had come close to a 300,000-square-foot deal at 1 WTC before negotiations fell apart in March. Before that, the firm had considered a lease at 230 Park Avenue. Reports had also suggested that Chadbourne would join other law firms along Eighth Avenue and that it was considering either 11 Times Square or 250 West 55th Street.
The space in 1301 Sixth Avenue — a 1.8 million-square-foot, 45-story office tower owned by the Paramount Group — opened after Dewey LeBoeuf, once one of the nation’s largest law firms, declared bankruptcy in May and left their 500,000-square-foot office. Chadbourne is expected to take between 200,000 and 250,000 square feet of the building’s lower floors. Part of the space’s appeal for Chadbourne was that Dewey left behind much of its interior design, meaning Chadbourne faced little in the way of build-costs that can sometimes run into the millions.
Even with this lease, Fortune 500-heavy Sixth Avenue remains awash in office space after an exodus of businesses began last year, starting with Societe Generale’s move to 245 Park Avenue from its 400,000 square feet at 1221 Sixth Avenue. [NYO] — Christopher Cameron