WHITE PLAINS—Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. has signed a major lease deal for more than 100,000 square feet in Downtown White Plains that is one of the largest lease deals involving a New York company moving operations to Westchester County in the past decade.

CBRE reports it has brokered a 101,000-square-foot lease with Tokyo-based Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. at 1 North Lexington Ave., also known as the Gateway Building. The bank has committed to a 13-year lease at the more than 532,000-square-foot office building.

The bank, which is headquartered in Japan and has North American operations in New York City at 277 Park Ave., had been in the market for some time looking for approximately 100,000 square feet of available space in White Plains.

The CBRE team of William V. Cuddy, Jr. and Jacqueline Novotny represented the building ownership, Gateway One Group, in the lease negotiations as the exclusive leasing agents for the office property. Williams Peters, Derek Trulson, Robert Ageloff and Paul Tortora of JLL acted on behalf of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.

Cuddy relates the Sumitomo lease is the largest lease transaction of any New York City company moving operations to Westchester County since September 2008 when Amalgamated Life Insurance Co. announced it was relocating its corporate headquarters from 730 Broadway in New York City to 135,000 square feet of space at the former Kraft Foods complex at 333 Westchester Ave. in White Plains.

The Sumitomo deal does not involve an entire corporate relocation, but will involve shifting of some of the bank's New York City workforce. Sumitomo Bank received some incentives from the Westchester County Industrial Development Agency in connection with planned tenant improvements at the Gateway Building. According to documents filed with the Westchester County IDA, Sumitomo stated that it expects to employ approximately 340 full-time employees at its new White Plains office. The new staff would consist of 231 transferred workers and 109 new hires. The entire project is expected to cost $38.5 million, including approximately $18.5 million in construction costs over the course of the 16-month project at the Gateway Building. The IDA granted Sumitomo a $1.97-million sales tax exemption if it moved forward with the project and lease deal at its session on April 27^th.

“The quality institutional ownership and the property's phenomenal Class A office space, as well as its central location—just a block from the White Plains Metro North Train Station and White Plains Transportation Center—made 1 North Lexington Avenue the ideal location for Sumitomo Mitsui,” says Cuddy, who has been the exclusive leasing agent for the building for 20 years. During his tenure, he has helped attract such high-profile corporate space users as Alliance Bernstein, GuildNet, Chase Bank, and many others to the building's tenant roster.

“Sumitomo Mitsui's commitment to the property is part of an early trend of the increased interest from New York City tenants coming into downtown White Plains looking for more reasonable rental rates. Tenants value the live, work and play environment and appreciate the advantage of the convenient commute to Manhattan,” CBRE's Novotny adds.

White Plains Mayor Tom Roach released a statement on the importance of the corporate relocation deal to the City of White Plains: “We are pleased to welcome Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation to our city. We've worked hard to create an environment that's attractive to employers and residents alike and it's gratifying to see our efforts bear fruit. The hundreds of jobs that SMBC will bring to the city will add to the vibrancy of our downtown and provide economic benefits to our downtown businesses.”

Cuddy says that Sumitomo will occupy space on the sixth, ninth and 10^th floors of the Gateway building, bringing the Gateway building to 96% occupancy. CBRE reported the Downtown White Plains vacancy rate at the end of the first quarter of this year was 19.3%. With the Sumitomo deal, Cuddy estimates the vacancy rate in Downtown White Plains has fallen to approximately 17.4%.

The Westchester County office market has not been a stranger to large lease deals of late. NY Life Insurance inked a 146,870-square-foot lease at 44 South Broadway in White Plains last year. Other notable lease deals in Downtown White Plains have included VMTurbo's 33,738-square-foot lease at the Gateway Building and Sidney Frank's 29,754-square-foot relocation to 10 Bank St. In addition, DanoneWave will begin construction soon on its approximately 100,000 square feet of new space at the Source at White Plains. The yogurt maker will relocate from its current North American headquarters totaling more than 77,000 square feet at 100 Hillside Ave. in Greenburgh.

Instant Insights /

Sumitomo Bank Inks Major Lease in Downtown White Plains

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