NYU Leases 58,000 SF At 1 MetroTech Center
This brings Forest City's New York portfolio to approximately 560,000 square feet of leased office space since the beginning of 2017.
NEW YORK CITY—New York University has signed a 26,000 square-foot lease on the 22nd floor and renewed approximately 32,000 square feet to occupy the entire 19th floor of 1 MetroTech Center. A source close to the transaction tells GlobeSt.com that the lease is for 10 years and asking rents are in the high $50s per square foot.
“NYU has been following a real estate strategy that focuses on using our core real estate in and around Washington Square for academic and institutional uses, classrooms, laboratories, academic centers, function spaces, student housing,” NYU spokesman John Beckman tells GlobeSt.com. He says, following that strategy the university has sought to free up space in their core by relocating administrative support staff to other locations.
Beckman says, “We have been planning for some time to find a new home for our IT administrative offices away from our core. Since the merger with the former Polytechnic University (now Tandon School of Engineering), we have focused on Brooklyn as an excellent choice for an expanded NYU presence. Forest City Ratner offered us an opportunity to move quickly into a fully built-out, top quality space ideally laid out and sized for IT administration–and we took it.”
With the NYU leases, Forest City has achieved approximately 560,000 square feet in signed office leases in its New York portfolio within the last 18 months.
Uniworld Group renewed at 1 Metro TechCenter for 37,000 square feet. Other tenants in the building include 3-D printer manufacturer Makerbot, the law firm Abrams Fensterman, Think! Architecture and Design, JP Morgan Chase, and utilities company National Grid. The City of New York’s Board of Education also renewed their lease for 63,000 square feet at Two Metrotech Center.
The real estate firm has leased over 360,000 square feet of office space in Downtown Brooklyn.
“Brooklyn, in particular, is in the midst of an exciting period, with ongoing commercial development efforts and greater interest and demand from organizations looking to relocate to or expand within the borough,” says Ali Esmaeilzadeh, SVP of asset management and leasing at Forest City. “We hope to remain on pace to execute several new transactions throughout the remainder of 2018, as we continue to amplify our local assets.”
In the recent lease and renewal, Forest City was represented internally by Esmaeilzadeh and Jesse Cooperman. NYU was represented internally by David Soles and NYU treasurer Janinie Wilcox.