The Jamaican government is packing up its current digs in Turtle Bay and moving a few blocks southeast.
Offices for both the Consulate General of Jamaica and the country’s permanent mission to the United Nations are moving to Somerset Partners and Meadow Partners’ 300 East 42nd Street, where the Jamaican government has signed a 20-year deal for 42,500 square feet.
The lease includes the entire third and fourth floors and a portion of the fifth floor at the 18-story, 237,000 square-foot building, which takes up the full Second Avenue blockfront between East 41st and 42nd streets. The asking rent for the space was $67 a square foot.
Gordon Ogden and Ben Mohr of Byrnam Wood represented the Jamaican government in the deal, which will see the Jamaican flag added to the front of the building and provide a more contiguous space for the consulate, which is leaving behind its existing space at 767 Third Avenue.
Somerset Partners and Meadow Partners were represented by a Newmark team that included Peter Shimkin and David Falk.
Somerset and Meadow acquired the building in 2019 for $122.5 million, or about $533 per square foot, before undertaking a $20 million capital improvement program which enhanced the façade and created a new entrance and lobby on Second Avenue with a contemporary art collection, among other internal renovations.
Last year, the owners signed leases with architecture firm CannonDesign for 17,500 square feet and JC Elite Construction for 5,000 square feet before refinancing the property with a $110 million loan from Fortress Investment Group.