NEW YORK CITY-Real estate investment firm MondayProperties has signed strategic management consultingfirm Orion Consultants to a 10-year, 10,400square-foot lease at 230 Park Avenue, GlobeSt.com has learned.Orion, a longtime tenant at 230 Park for over a decade, doubled itsspace to now occupy half of the 22^nd floor, while theother half of the floor is occupied by mega-REIT SimonProperty Group Inc., the nation’s leading owner, managerand developer of regional shopping malls, which signed a new12,000-square-foot lease earlier in the year.

Brian Robin, COO of Monday Properties, tellsGlobeSt.com, says the Orion lease is the first formal deal sincethe recent $760 millionrecapitalization of 230 Park in June 2011, but thelease itself was driven by the growth of the company’s business.“In the process of growing, Orion is an equity and research firm,so they work long hours and have a lot of technology needs,” Robinsays, explaining that the firm also specializes in sales, trading,underwriting and research performance. “That combination of needfor growth and need for being potentially being round-the-clock, ifyou will, it has to be a high-quality work environment.”

Robin explained that as the company was planning to renew itsolder space after renewing it one year ago, it “prompted theconversation” about how Orion could continue with their expansionand upgrade at the same time. “That prompted a very simplediscussion, which was we could do better,” he says. “It worked forthem and it worked for us.” PaulAmrich of CBRE and JordanBerger of Monday Properties represented the landlordin direct negotiations with Orion.