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Durst lands Empire State Development at 655 Third Avenue

HQ move sparks 117K sf lease — one of Midtown’s biggest this year

Durst Organization chairperson Douglas Durst and 655 Third Avenue (Getty, LoopNet)
Durst Organization chairperson Douglas Durst and 655 Third Avenue (Getty, LoopNet)

A state office signed one of the biggest leases in Midtown Manhattan this year, inking a deal with the Durst Organization.

The Empire State Development Corporation — a prominent player in the battle for Penn Station’s future — signed a lease for 117,000 square feet at 655 Third Avenue, the New York Post reported. ESDC will be replacing Mitsubishi, which left for another Durst building.

The lease for Empire State’s headquarters is one of the largest in the district this year. The agency will occupy five floors of the 30-story, 425,000-square-foot property. The asking rent for the space was $69 per square foot.

For ESDC, the move is a small walk down the street from Time Equities’ 633 Third Avenue, where the agency occupied roughly the same amount of space of its new deal.

Tom Bow and Ashlea Aaron were among those to represent Durst in-house. A Newmark team including Moshe Sukenik and Brian Cohen were among those to represent the tenant.

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Other major tenants at the property include the Abacus Group and the Big East Conference. Once another deal is locked in, the property will be 85 percent occupied, according to Durst.

The Manhattan office market remains challenging for landlords. In the second quarter, available office space in the borough reached an all-time high, more than 70 million square feet available to be leased. The 19.7 percent vacancy rate was the highest since the pandemic began, according to a report from Savills.

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In the first quarter, however, there were some huge deals signed in Midtown, the only market to see year-over-year leasing volume increases from January to March. Fox and News Corporation combined to renew more than 1 million square feet at 1211 Sixth Avenue, while Ken Griffin’s Citadel signed big leases at both 350 Park Avenue and 40 East 52nd Street.

Durst recently made waves with an office leasing transaction of its own. The developer relocated its offices from One Bryant Park to 1155 Sixth Avenue, adding 25,000 square feet to its footprint in the process.

— Holden Walter-Warner

Tags
Durst OrganizationEmpire State DevelopmentMidtown ManhattanOffice Leasing