Cushman & Wakefield inked a deal to expand its offices on Sixth Avenue, quashing speculation that the brokerage was looking to consolidate offices – at least for now.
The firm, which has gone through several mergers and acquisitions in recent years, took about 15,000 square feet at 1290 Sixth Avenue, Crain’s reported. That brings its total square footage in the 43-story, 2.1 million-square-foot tower to slightly more than 200,000 square feet.
The space will provide room for Cushman to relocate employees from other locations in Midtown, and the company will use the deal as an excuse to redo conference rooms, common space and the reception area in the space it’s leased for nearly a decade.
“It’s a chance to create collaboration and bring people together,” said John Santora, president of Cushman’s tristate region. “We had been looking at all our options recently, but we still have some room to run on the lease here and we love the building and the landlord. This works for us, so we’re going to do a refresh of the space and settle in and do our thing.”
The lease runs through 2025, and Santora said Cushman will consider moving once the expiration approaches.
“As the expiration comes closer, everything is on the table,” he said.
The 1290 Sixth expansion will make room for Cushman to bring over most of the brokers from Massey Knakal – including Bob Knakal and Paul Massey – currently located at 275 Madison Avenue. Cushman acquired Massey Knakal in early 2015 for $100 million.
Cushman will relocate staff and vacate roughly 43,000 square feet from 277 Park Avenue that came under the firm’s umbrella when it was acquired by DTZ for $2 billion in 2015.
Rents at 1290 Sixth, owned by Vornado Realty Trust, are in the high $80s per square foot. A Vornado leasing team including Glen Weiss, Eddie Riguardi and Josh Glick negotiated the expansion.
Cushman was rumored earlier this year to be eyeing an initial public offering, but that effort appears to have stalled. [Crain’s] – Rich Bockmann