NEW YORK CITY-Commerzbank AG, which has maintained its US headquarters at Brookfield Office Properties’ World Financial Center since the 1990s, is staying put. The bank signed on for 173,000 square feet and 15 more years at 2 World Financial Center, BOP said late Monday afternoon. Lease terms were not disclosed.

In a release, BOP says that the Commerzbank lease, when coupled with OppenheimerFunds’ decision in February to stay at 2 WFC after its sublease from Bank of America Merrill Lynch expires, represents more than 400,000 square feet of Merrill sublease space that has been converted to direct at the 2.3-million-square-foot office property. OppenheimerFunds’ 15-year lease for 235,342 square feet commences in 2013 when its Merrill sublease expires, as does Commerzbank’s.

Ric Clark, president and CEO of BOP, says in a statement that his firm is pleased “that these two respected financial services institutions have chosen to extend their tenancy at the World Financial Center and remain committed to Lower Manhattan.” The bank was represented in lease negotiations by John Cefaly and Robert Lowe of Cushman & Wakefield, while BOP was represented in-house. C&W also negotiated for OppenheimerFunds in last month’s leasing deal.

BOP is currently Lower Manhattan’s largest office landlord. More than two-thirds of BOP’s 18.4-million-square-foot office portfolio in the New York metro area is Downtown.

At a Real Estate Lenders Association present in February, Dennis Friedrich, BOP’s president and CEO for US commercial operations, said “all of the things that are going to transform Lower Manhattan” would “lock into place” within the next few years. Among them are the Fulton Street Transit Center, the Santiago Calatrava-designed PATH terminal and the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, which continues apace.

The office components at Ground Zero, including the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s 1 World Trade Center and the three towers planned by Silverstein Properties Inc., all represent “stock that New York City needs,” Friedrich said. He told the RELA audience that the towers will come on line “in staggered fashion” rather than hitting the market all at once.

A few blocks west of the WTC site, BOP intends to redevelop its eight-million-square-foot, four-building WFC complex, and Friedrich said in February that his company expects to announce plans very soon. Along with the WFC complex, BOP’s other office holdings Downtown are One Liberty Plaza and One New York Plaza.