Legg Mason & Co Signs Major Lease

The lease agreement stems from Legg Mason's acquisition of Citigroup Asset Management's US Equity Group in December. The former Citigroup division will continue to have a major presence at the First Stamford Place complex with this new deal.

CB Richard Ellis and W&M Properties report that Legg Mason has restructured an existing lease of more than 150,000 sf at the complex for an additional 18 year-term. That lease now runs through 2024. Another 52,000 sf of the former Citigroup division's space has a lease term that expires in 2012, at which time Legg Mason has the option to renew, W&M Properties officials report.

As part of the lease restructuring, the building owner will recapture 89,000 sf of former Citigroup space in June 2007, resulting in the largest vacancy in First Stamford Place since W&M Properties acquired the 810,000-sf, three-building office complex nearly six years ago.

Kenneth Rapp, Doug Marlow, Chris Mansfield and Casey Hirschhorn of CBRE's Midtown Manhattan office and Tom Pajolek of the firm's Connecticut operation represented Legg Mason in the restructuring transactions. W&M Properties was represented in-house by Anthony Malkin, Jeffrey Newman and Kathy Caracappa.

"Since its acquisition of the Citigroup asset management division, Legg Mason wanted to create its own image at First Stamford Place," Rapp says. "This restructured lease provides Legg Mason with a great platform in making that goal a reality, especially given the signage rights and renewal options."

Commenting on the former Citigroup space that will be available for lease, W&M's Newman says, "Bringing to market such a large quality block of space for the first time is an exciting challenge. We believe we're hitting the market at just the right time with the class A space at the Stamford Transportation Center in such high demand."