NEW YORK CITY—McGraw Hill Financial—the parent company of Standard & Poor's—has agreed to stay put in its sprawling Downtown space.

The tenant reached an agreement with landlord New Water Street Corp. to renew it 900,027-square-foot lease at 55 Water St. McGraw Hill inked a multi-year renewal for the entire 34th through 46th floors—along with a portion of the concourse and 52nd floor. The company is the largest tenant in the building.

“This lease renewal is the culmination of our efforts to upgrade 55 Water Street via a significant capital improvement plan,” says Bruce Hodges Jr., director of leasing and tenant relations at New Water Street.

The building owner has invested more than $100 million in building upgrades following Superstorm Sandy to ensure that the operation of all major building systems are not interrupted by a future event.

“This agreement is just another example of how Lower Manhattan's continued resurgence has made it a highly attractive place for many of New York City's greatest companies, and how well-positioned buildings like 55 Water Street have benefited from this resurgence,” says Howard Fiddle, vice chairman of CBRE Group.

The real estate services firm's Dave Caperna, Brad Gerla, Evan Haskell, Mary Ann Tighe and Fiddle represented the landlord. The tenant also was represented by CBRE, with Cara Chayet, Michael Liss, Ken Meyerson, Paul Myers and Ramneek Rikhy handling the transaction.

The law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson acted as counsel to New Water Street Corp. Attorneys on the transaction included real estate partners Meyer Last and Jennifer A. Yashar, as well as real estate associate Mallory Beberman.

Asserts Mitra Meshgin-Poosh, SVP of global real estate services at McGraw Hill Financial, “We will use this opportunity to upgrade our floors into cohesive, state-of-the-art work environments that encourage collaboration and include upgraded Wi-Fi, telecommunications and electrical systems. We also will continue to renovate and upgrade our conference rooms to enable video conferencing. In this new configuration, we are placing like teams together and making the best use of available space while eliminating existing vacant real estate.”

The 687-foot tall skyscraper is said to be the largest office building in Manhattan with nearly four million rentable square feet and has two public parks/plazas, a 600-car indoor parking garage as well as an on-site tenant-only cafeteria.

Other tenants at 55 Water Street include Hugo Boss, Emblem Health and Liberty Mutual. Building owner New Water Street Corp. is a wholly owned entity of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, one of the larger public pension funds in the United States. 

NEW YORK CITY—McGraw Hill Financial—the parent company of Standard & Poor's—has agreed to stay put in its sprawling Downtown space.

Instant Insights /

Giant Downtown Tenant Locks in its Space

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