Facebook in talks for massive lease at Vornado’s Farley Building

Facebook is in talks to lease all 740,000 square feet of office space at Vornado Realty Trust’s massive redevelopment of the landmark Midtown post office building. If a deal is reached, it has the potential to further the transformation of the West Side into the city’s preeminent office destination.

The social media behemoth’s potential expansion into the renamed Farley Building, the New York Post reported, comes as other tech giants like Amazon and Google are also looking to increase their presence in the city.

The former James A. Farley Post Office, which sits across from Madison Square Garden and Penn Station, was built in 1912 and designated a landmark site in 1966. Vornado is undergoing an enormous redevelopment of the building, and plans to open it next year.

Facebook has been looking to expand its presence in New York for some time, and was previously in talks to lease office space at 50 Hudson Yards. The latest talks, which are in advanced stages, according to the Post, haven’t put an end to the Hudson Yards negotiations. Facebook is reportedly planning to lease both spaces.

For the Farley Building redevelopment, the exterior will remain largely intact. The interior will feature expansive office space, and a new fifth floor will be added atop the building and enclosed by outdoor park areas. Facebook would take over floors two, three, four and five, according to the report.

More than a decade ago, Vornado chairman Steven Roth was behind a $14 billion plan to transplant Madison Square Garden and replace it with a new Penn Station that expanded into the Farley Building. The plan fell apart in 2008 after then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned from office amid scandal.

“It just broke our hearts,” Roth said at the time. “Every time you go into Penn Station you should be a little bitter. Spit on the floor.” [NY Post] — Sylvia Varnham O’Regan