Paramount Corrals Citizens Bank at 1301 Sixth Avenue

Paramount Group brought a significant tenant into the fold at 1301 Sixth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

Rhode Island-based Citizens Bank signed a lease for 74,000 square feet at the office property, the Commercial Observer reported. Citizens is relocating from the Kaufman Organizaton’s 437 Madison Avenue, where it has been occupying less than a quarter of the space it will be taking on Sixth Avenue.

Terms of the deal, including asking rent and length, were not disclosed. In the fourth quarter, Midtown’s average asking rent was $82.89 per square foot, according to CBRE. The brokers in the deal were also not revealed.

Two years ago, law firm O’Melveny & Myers signed a 15-year lease for 142,000 square feet at the property, at which point the asking rent was $84 per square foot. The law firm planned on moving either late this year or early next year.

Other tenants at the 45-story, 1.7-million-square-foot building include Nexstar Media Group and law firm Smith Gambrell Russell.

In 2021, Paramount landed an $860 million refinancing package for the property. Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley each provided $355 million mortgage loans and $75 million mezzanine loans.

Sixth Avenue has seen strong leasing momentum in recent months: three of New York City’s four biggest leases last month were signed on that avenue.

The world’s largest law firm, Denton, renewed 156,000 square feet at the Rockefeller Group’s 1221 Sixth Avenue in Times Square. Intercontinental Exchange, owner of the New York Stock Exchange, signed a new 143,000-square-foot lease at Fisher Brothers’ 1345 Sixth Avenue in Midtown West, site of last year’s biggest lease.

And Nexstar signed its 68,000-square-foot sublease at 1301 Sixth Avenue, taking the space from CohnReznick.

Paramount, run by Albert Behler, has prominent office holdings in New York and San Francisco. On the West Coast, the firm appears poised to lose three office buildings in downtown San Francisco after defaulting on at least one loan.

— Holden Walter-Warner