AXA Financial’s prowl for a huge chunk of office space is on temporary hold while the company sorts out the repercussions from the appointment of Mellon’s Christopher M. “Kip” Condron as president and chief executive officer in mid-May. But its search for up to 600,000 square feet is not likely to wait for long.
Mitchell E. Hersh, CEO of the Mack-Cali Realty Corp. confirmed his Plaza 5 in Jersey City is “clearly among the small group of properties” vying for the Axa signature.
The others, brokers say, include Hartz Mountain’s 77 Water St. and LeFrak’s next Newport Tower.
Mack-Cali’s 980,000-square-foot Plaza 5 already has signed leases for 20 percent, with enough leases out for signature to bring occupancy to a third of the building.
“We’re also in active discussion with a number of large requirements, and we’re seeing a broadening of the users to front-end corporate users in a diverse number of industries,” he said. These include a pharmaceutical company and even a Left Coast firm that probably won’t make the final leap across the Hudson due to higher Manhattan prices.
New office rents in Jersey for his buildings are in the mid-$30s, Hersh said. Compare that to asking prices of much more than $65 a foot for Manhattan’ s recent crop of skyscrapers.
It’s also unlikely the large users will be signing a sublease from Charles R. Schwab very fast. That company leased the entire 575,000-square-foot Plaza 10 from Mack-Cali, and – as The Post reported – is now trying to sublease at least half.
But sources say Schwab can’t fully jump into the competitive leasing fray until Plaza 5 is leased up. So they, too, have fingers crossed that Axa completes the Mack-Cali deal.
“We have been actively involved with Axa for some period of time, and Schwab would not be able to talk to them,” confirmed Hersh. Besides, he added, “Schwab would not be subletting enough to accommodate that requirement.”
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Insignia/ESG’s Bob Alexander is shepherding Axa around Jersey, and also helping its Equitable side lease up 787 Seventh when Ernst & Young departs. He declined to comment, but others say UBS Warburg is the one most likely to pony up enough to shimmy into the 500,000-square-foot city space.
That would leave Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells chasing other developments, such as the Vornado/Lawrence Ruben Port Authority Bus Tower, Durst and Milstein.
But the law firm only takes up around 200,000 square feet in the Met Life Building, 450 Lex and elsewhere. So how can it grow big enough to fit the larger size? Sources in the legal community say the law firm is asking 45 of its lesser producers to find work elsewhere while it makes room to merge with another firm.
Its partner in charge of offices claimed they are big enough as is. “We take up a lot of space,” he claimed. Yes, but not enough, not yet.
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Porky Pig will soon be uttering “Th-th-thaaat’s all folks” when the Times Square Warner Bros. store becomes history.
As The Post reported in October, the cartoon tchotchke shop expects to close most of its 140 locations, including the since-shuttered Fifth Avenue and 57th Street site.
Warner has now hired Robert K. Futterman & Associates to pitch the multi-floor space inside the One Times Square signtower, site of the New Year’s ball drop.
The building has 5,000-square-foot triangularized floorplates with the store using only a handful of the otherwise empty structure.
“We’ll lease the whole building,” says Futterman, who is pitching to a variety of technology and entertainment companies that might create a unique showcase.
One problem: Brokers say there’s a lot of retail open in Times Square, and the zoning-induced signs are causing sensory overkill. Who can tell if the sign is actually an ad – or an entrance?
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