Warner Discovery Subleases 74K SF at 30 Hudson Yards

Warner Bros. Discovery is extending its cost-cutting push to its Manhattan office footprint.

Trading firm Susquehanna International Group agreed to sublease 74,000 square feet from the media conglomerate at 30 Hudson Yards, the Commercial Observer reported. Susquehanna will occupy a full floor for the next decade — until WBD’s lease expires — and then switch to a six-year direct lease with landlords Related Companies and Allianz.

The asking rent for both of those deals are unclear, though asking rents at the building are typically in the $110s and $120s per square foot.

A Newmark team including Brian Goldman and Ross Perlman represented Susquehanna in the sublease, while a CBRE team including Robert Alexander and Anthony Manginelli represented WBD; Related’s Stephen Winter and Elliot Karp represented the landlord in-house on the direct deal.

Susquehanna is upsizing from 140 Broadway, where it took 54,000 square feet in 2020.

WBD occupies 1.5 million square feet at 30 Hudson Yards. It purchased the space from Related in 2014 to use as the company headquarters, then sold it back to Related five years later for $2.2 billion in a sale-leaseback designed to keep WBD in the 100-story tower until 2034.

But David Zaslav’s company has undergone drastic changes in recent years and shifted its real estate needs in the process. Two years ago, parent company AT&T sold the business to Discovery and proceeded to put 450,000 square feet on the sublease market.

Meanwhile, construction on a 13-story, 375,000-square-foot space at 230 Park Avenue South commenced in 2019 and wrapped at the end of 2021, according to the Observer. The space is fully dedicated to WBD today.

Even as WBD downsizes, 30 Hudson Yards is still a popular office destination with well-heeled tenants. Last year, KKR took an additional 220,000 square feet at the building where it already had 300,000 square feet, grabbing the space of the departing Meta.

— Holden Walter-Warner