Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital is nearing a deal to take 49,000 square feet at Boston Properties’ 250 West 55th Street in Midtown.
The hedge fund would occupy the 34th and 35th floors and also take space for a gym in the basement, according to Bloomberg News. Pershing Square would be relocating from its current offices at 888 Seventh Avenue, where it occupies 31,000 square feet.
Ackman is famous in the real estate world for his plan to flip a $90 million penthouse at Gary Barnett’s One57, which he purchased with a group of investors in 2013, among other daring moves. His hedge fund rose to prominence with a $1 billion move to short Herbalife’s stock.
The 988,000-square-foot spec office tower was 82 percent leased as of last week, with major tenants including law firms Morrison & Foerster and Kaye Scholer, as well as George Soros’ Soros Fund Management and news organization Al Jazeera.
Construction on the building was stalled for five years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, but the tower was finally completed in 2013. [Bloomberg News] — Tess Hofmann