Ogilvy Closes on Long-Term Lease

NEW YORK CITY-Ogilvy New York will move its entire New York City agency and locally based operating units to 636 Eleventh Ave. in 2009. Ogilvy will occupy all of the 11-story, 554,800-sf building that encompasses the entire eastern block on 11th Avenue between West 46th and West 47th streets in a long-term lease signed with owner, the Hakimian Organization and its partners Peykar Brothers Realty & Gorjian Properties.

The building will house all of Ogilvy’s local companies and employees in one building, including Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, OgilvyOne, OgilvyInteractive, Neo@Ogilvy, OgilvyPR, OgilvyAction, the Brand Integration Group, RedWorks and Ogilvy Healthworld. The building will carry the Ogilvy. The agency has hired architect, Gensler, to reconfigure and design the space according to the agency’s specifications.

An unidentified source tells GlobeSt.com that asking rents at the property are $55 per sf. Vice chairman Mitchell Konsker, EVP Paul Glickman and associate Jack Cohen of Cushman & Wakefield represented the Hakimian Organization as the exclusive leasing agent. Ogilvy & Mather was represented by Mary Ann Tighe, Gregory Tosko and Casey Hirschhorn of CB Richard Ellis.

Ogilvy expects to move to the new space in the spring of 2009. The location is close to a long-proposed extension of the No. 7 New York Subway Line and several new developments including a luxury hotel by Kimpton.

“This lease confirms the importance of the far West Side as a vibrant and exciting neighborhood,” notes Ben Hakimian, a principal of the Hakimian Organization, in a prepared statement. “This building will become the focus of a whole new creative center in New York.”

Chris Wall, vice chairman of the creative team at Ogilvy New York, says in a prepared statement that “this is the ultimate creative assignment–the chance to remake Ogilvy both physically and spiritually for the way the world is going to work tomorrow and 10 years from tomorrow. A new neighborhood, a new space, a new way of working–it’s like winning a huge new account. Now all we have to figure out is how to be a good client.”

The property was built in 1913 and originally housed the Auerbach Chocolate factory. It has high ceilings on the first floor, a courtyard and a roof-top terrace that Ogilvy plans to design as a garden space. The agency will work with Gensler and other partners to bring the best energy efficient attributes to the space. “Sustainability is a key priority for Ogilvy,” notes Gunther Schumacher, Ogilvy’s chief business operations officer. “We are working very closely with the Hakimian Organization to make the ‘Candy Factory’ a green building and get it LEED certified.”