Time Inc. will abandon its Rockefeller Center headquarters and join the parade of media companies moving to lower Manhattan by the end of next year.
Chief Executive Joe Ripp said in a memo to staffers on Thursday that the company has signed a long-term lease for new corporate headquarters at 225 Liberty St., occupying six floors in the Brookfield Place office complex.
He added that the site is undergoing a $250 million renovation.
“We are leasing raw floor space we can shape to our own vision,” Ripp told staffers. “We shall benefit from superb river views and a 20,000 sq. ft. private deck overlooking the Hudson River.
“We plan to create an open modern workspace that will foster collaboration and ignite creativity across the company.”
Time Inc., which parent Time Warner is spinning off as a separate company, became one of the anchors of so-called Publishers Row in Midtown Manhattan when it moved into the Time & Life Building in 1959.
Ripp said the company scouted locations in New Jersey and elsewhere in New York City before settling on the new site. The lease at the Time & Life Building does not expire until 2017.
Time Inc. expects to shave off $150 million in real-estate costs by selling unwanted properties, such as the old Southern Progress headquarters in Birmingham, Ala., and moving its headquarters, according to a recent regulatory filing.
Condé Nast started the media exodus to downtown in 2010, when it announced plans to move to 1 World Trade Center.
National Enquirer owner American Media and Mort Zuckerman’s Daily News have also moved back into their offices on Water Street after being forced out because of Hurricane Sandy flooding.
Time Inc., whose magazines include Time, People, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune, said the spin-off will take place on June 6, when it will begin trading as a public company.