Marx Realty Rebranding 545 Madison With Baccarat

If amenities won’t bring employees back to the office, one landlord is hoping the sight of crystals will.

Marx Realty signed a deal with Baccarat to rebrand the office building at 545 Madison Avenue, the New York Post reported. The rebrand is the first in the office space for the French luxury crystal company, which has a branded hotel on West 53rd Street.

The financial terms of the arrangement were not reported. In addition to an updated name, the Midtown Manhattan property will feature Baccarat chandeliers in the lobby and common areas, Baccarat barware in the lounge and company branding on the ground-floor windows.

The rebrand comes after Marx spent $24 million to upgrade the property, including transforming the lobby, along with adding a library and tenants’ club floor.

Baccarat is shifting its U.S. headquarters from 635 Madison Avenue — where it will retain a store — to 10,000 square feet at 545 Madison. The company is paying $135 per square foot, the ceiling of asking rents at the property.

The 145,000-square-foot property is 90 percent leased, according to Marx CEO Craig Deitelzweig. Last year, real estate firm Ogden CAP Properties, the real estate arm of the Milstein clan, signed a three-year renewal of its 42,000 square feet at the building through 2027.

Marx took control of the property in 2019, evicting Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities from a ground lease after months of unpaid rent and outstanding real estate taxes.

While this is Baccarat’s first branded office building, the company’s name is on the hotel at 28 West 53rd Street in Manhattan and could be coming to a luxury condo development in Miami, too. That project’s future is murky, however, after artifacts and both human and animal remains dating thousands of years were discovered during the excavation of the site.

— Holden Walter-Warner