Law Firm Signs 20-Year Extension at 601 Lexington Ave.

NEW YORK CITY—If you are looking for the law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP in 2039, you can set your GPS to 601 Lexington Ave. here.

The law firm has signed a lease extension that also involves some restructuring of space at the 59-story 601 Lexington Ave. office tower. The lease extension, which begins at the end of its current lease term in 2019, will keep Kirkland & Ellis in more than 400,000 square feet of space at the building until 2039. The long-term lease extension deal was announced by Savills Studley, which brokered the transaction.

The brokerage firm states that the transaction provides the law firm with greater efficiency and a modern workplace environment, while also offering it flexibility in future years to meet its changing space requirements.

“After an extensive study of all possible relocation alternatives, including new development, an early extension at this signature Manhattan tower was clearly Kirkland's best option,” says Savills Studley chairman and CEO Mitchell Steir, who headed a team comprised of executive vice president Matthew Barlow, executive managing director Greg Taubin, executive vice president David Goldstein and senior managing director Jason Perla, in brokering the transaction. John Powers and Andrew Levin of Boston Properties represented the building's ownership in the lease extension/restructuring deal.

Savills Studley's Barlow says that when the lease extension for 13 full floors comprising a total of 403,000 square feet commences in 2019, Kirkland & Ellis will have swapped several of its lower floors (32 – 34) for higher floors (45, 46 and 51) and all of its restacked space (35 – 45, 50 and 51) will undergo upgrades.