Bill Clinton may be one of the people on the move when Time Inc. evacuates its longtime headquarters at the Time & Life Building for new digs downtown by the end of 2015.
As Time Inc. has scaled back its staffing in recent years, it began renting out its empty floors to tenants. They signed deals with the expectation they would be there until the Time Inc. lease expires in 2017.
But those renters may be getting tossed out a lot sooner.
When Time Inc. announced its plans to move into new digs downtown at Brookfield Place recently, it said it expected to be moving by “late 2015.”
Where that leaves the tenants is anybody’s guess — but the expectation is that they will move out no later than the publisher.
The Clinton Global Initiative, which rents Midtown space from Time Inc. — while keeping its main office on West 125th Street in Harlem — had not returned calls by presstime.
Another Time Inc. tenant is fast-growing Sandow, which took 40,000 square feet and moved its headquarters from Boca Raton, Fla., onto the 17th floor of the Time & Life Building in space once occupied by Fortune magazine.
So far, Sandow CEO Adam Sandow said he has had no direct communications with the landlord or Time Inc. about moving.
“I expect to be looking for new space in about 2¹/₂ years,” he told Media Ink, “unless the landlord makes it worthwhile to move before then.”
Sandow owns the Interior Design, Luxe Interiors + Design and Worth titles — and recently teamed up with Evolution Media, a fund controlled by TPG Growth and Participant Media, to unveil plans to take Hollywood retailer Fred Segal worldwide.
Time Inc., struggling to find growth, might have done well to emulate the smaller Sandow.
“Since 2005, we’ve had compound annual growth of nearly 30 percent,” said Sandow. The growth has come from acquisitions as well as organic growth, he said.
Sandow revenue is north of $100 million, the executive said, and in September the company plans to open seven Fred Segal stores, including one in the sprawling new SLS resort in Las Vegas and several in Japan.
“I don’t think you can just be an advertising-based company with a small digital business on the side,” said Sandow, who also built his own magazine distribution company that has 200 outlets in private airports.