Vornado replaces departed tenant at Sixth Avenue office tower

Vornado Realty Trust has inked Selendy Gay Elsberg to a lease that expands the law firm’s footprint by a third at 1290 Sixth Avenue, to 101,000 square feet.

The tenant has been subleasing from fellow law firm Venable on floors 17 and 18 and from State Street on part of the fourth floor for a total of 75,000 square feet. Venable announced in March that it had moved from 1270 and 1290 Sixth Avenue to 151 West 42nd Street.

Selendy Gay Elsberg’s new direct lease essentially shifts its space upward from the fourth and 17th floors, consolidating and expanding its presence across floors 18 through 21 in the 2.1-million-square-foot tower. Asking rents are approximately $110 per foot in that portion of the building.

Selendy Gay Elsberg will also get a period of free rent and a generous deal on build-out expenses, sources said.

The law firm was represented by Alex Jinishian and Ted Rotante of Colliers. Vornado was represented in-house by Edward Riguardi and Ryan Levy along with a Cushman & Wakefield team led by Josh Kuriloff and Bruce Mosler.

The brokers declined to comment.

Vornado will soon kick off a new amenity project with the addition of its WorkLife program, which was recently installed at Penn 1 on both the ground floor and a 230-person town hall area with a 10,000-square-foot outdoor park on the 17th floor.

A stake in 1290 Sixth Avenue is owned by Donald Trump. He ended up with it when his partners at Riverside South sold that property to Extell and reinvested the proceeds in the Sixth Avenue office building. The partners later sold their interests in the Midtown tower and San Francisco’s 555 California Street to Vornado.

That left Trump with the other 30 percent of 1290 Sixth in a partnership that restricts a sale until 2044, when the former president will be 98.

Designed by Emery Roth & Sons in 1964, the building was redeveloped under Vornado’s ownership in 2013 using architects Moed de Armas & Shannon. The REIT carved out a triple-height lobby, did lower façade work and installed a new sidewalk and entry pavers, enhancing the full eastern blockfront between West 51st and West 52nd streets.

The renovation also included new destination dispatch elevators, security systems, operating systems and HVAC upgrades.

According to the building’s website, spaces are available from the 11th through 15th floors ranging from 53,000 to 87,000 square feet, along with two smaller tower floors of 25,000 to 27,000 square feet.After spinning out from Quinn Emanuel about five years ago, Selendy Gay Elsberg has grown from 10 attorneys to more than 80.