Five months after Condé Nast and the Port Authority signed a non-binding “letter of intent,” a completed lease for the glam-magazine factory to move to 1 World Trade Center is inevitable, sources predicted.
The only disagreement is over timing. While several sources believed the epochal inking could occur as early as March, others insisted it would take longer — “not because anything’s gone wrong, but simply because it’s so complicated,” one said.
Condé Nast is currently at 4 Times Square. Last August, the publisher and the PA announced they had a term sheet. But it was far from a done deal, especially in light of the WTC site’s notorious complexities.
However, a final deal for Condé Nast to take 1 million square feet in the 2.6 million square-foot tower’s lower half is clearly in sight.
Nobody’s breaking out champagne yet. All-but-done deals can and do break down — as in last year’s last-minute scuttling by A&E Networks of plans to move to 150 E. 42nd St.
But the Condé Nast commitment would, at a stroke, make nonsense of widespread skepticism since 9/11 that major companies would ever return to the WTC site.
Condé Nast’s stature as a singularly prestigious brand would make all of the site’s office space a hot commodity — at 1 WTC, at Larry Silverstein‘s fast-rising 4 WTC and in two towers yet to come.
Meanwhile, word that Gov. Cuomo has decided to keep Christopher Ward on as PA executive director is “good news for downtown and good news for the state,” said Silverstein Properties’ development director Janno Lieber. Downtown Alliance president Liz Berger similarly called it “great news.”
Lieber’s praise is especially meaningful given the past animosity between Silverstein and the PA — a history of blame and counter-blame, public name-calling and lawsuits.
Ward, who was appointed to the post by former Gov. Paterson in 2008, reversed a pattern by predecessors who seemed not only ineffectual at getting anything done, but also out of touch with what was going on at ground zero.
On Ward’s watch, progress has been remarkable on 1 WTC, the memorial, and the site’s fiendishly complicated infrastructure. (When we’ll see the Santiago Calatrava-designed transportation “Hub” remains to be seen.)
Ward also pushed through two crucial agreements — with Silverstein over financing terms for his towers and with the Durst Organization, which will be the PA’s minority partner in managing and leasing 1 WTC.
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A little clarity, please, regarding plans “reported” last week for a new hotel on West 42nd Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway:
Although DiamondRock Hospitality has a contract to buy the barren midblock site at 136 W. 42nd St. from Highgate Holdings and Walton Street Capital upon completion of a new hotel in 2013, it does not include the planned new building’s 25,000 square feet of retail space — a condominium to be owned by Highgate and its operating partners, the Chera family’s Crown Acquisitions and Ashkenazy Acquisitions.
And while we’re on the subject of the block, let’s note that Equity Office’s design for a 43,080-square-foot, glass-wrapped retail building to replace the hideous Pop-Tart store was first shown on this page last Sept. 28 — months before it was touted as an “exclusive” on TV and in lazy blogs.
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Spanish banking giant BBVA has re-upped to 84,000 square feet at the Fisher Brothers’ 1345 Sixth Ave., in a deal that includes 42,000 square feet of growth.
BBVA was represented by a Cushman & Wakefield team led by prolific John Cefaly, who represented Natixis and Sandler O’Neill + Partners in large recent leases at nearby 1251 Sixth Ave.
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Communication Partners Group has signed an eight-year, 21,891 square-foot sublease at Stawski Partners’ 360 Madison Ave., where it will move from 330 Madison Ave. in April. The firm is a developer of promotional medical communication and education programs.
Studley’s John Mambrino and Nicholas Farmakis repped the tenant. Communication Partners CEO James Bargon credited the two with finding “a signifi cantly nicer space and better loca tion than I could have imagined at a price well below going rates.” No one would comment on what that price might be, but sources estimated the going rate in the building as in the $50s to the mid-$60s depending on floor.