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Tuesday January 10, 2012
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Bank of America Shaves 360K Off W. 47th Street Lease
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 Bank of America has renewed its lease at 114 West 47th Street for approximately 360,000 square feet of space—far less than it currently occupies in the building.
The bank had been in discussions to extend its occupancy at the building for months. On Monday, insiders with direct knowledge of the deal and a spokeswoman for the bank, confirmed that the contraction had been signed on Friday morning.
The deal is the second ancillary location to the bank’s New York City headquarters at One Bryant Park where it has significantly decreased the size of its office footprint.
According to several sources familiar with 114 West 47th Street, Bank of America in recent years has leased virtually all of the building’s roughly 660,000 square feet of space. Though Bank of America wouldn’t confirm how much space it has at the 20-story midtown building, which sits nearby to One Bryant Park along Sixth Avenue, the lease renewal would appear to be a substantial reduction in space it has at the location.
The deal follows a downsizing in Lower Manhattan in recent months. The bank inherited about three million square feet at the World Financial Center when it purchased Merrill Lynch during the financial crisis in 2008. Merrill’s space was set to expire in 2013 and there was widespread speculation in the real estate industry how much the bank would keep. Last summer, Bank of America ended up renewing only a fraction of the square footage Merrill had there, about 750,000 square feet.
The Durst Organization owns 114 West 47th Street. For a time last year, there was speculation among real estate brokers whether Bank of America could relocate from 114 West 47th Street, including rumors that the bank could take space at Four Times Square, which abuts One Bryant Park. Conde Nast, Four Times Square’s biggest tenant, is relocating from that property to One World Trade Center. The Durst Organization owns Four Times Square and developed One Bryant Park with Bank of America as its anchor tenant there. The landlord also purchased a $100 million stake in One World Trade Center, an investment that was viewed by many real estate observers as a facilitating factor in Conde Nast’s move to that tower.
Lately though Bank of America has suffered setbacks that have appeared to preclude bold real estate commitments. Last summer, the bank paid out $8.5 billion to settle claims from investors that lost money on mortgage backed securities during the downturn.
Cushman & Wakefield represented Bank of America in the deal. The Durst Organization is represented at the property by an in house team of leasing executives. Neither could be reached for comment by press time.
Daniel Geiger is reachable at DGeiger@Observer.com
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Corzine Tours Office Space at Trump's 40 Wall Street
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 Fresh off the highly publicized collapse of securities firm MF Global Holdings Ltd., former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is allegedly sniffing around for new office space at 40 Wall Street, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
Mr. Corzine has set his sights on sharing space with John Carris Investments, a full service investment banking firm whose corporate headquarters are located inside the Trump Organization-owned office tower, The WSJ reports.
A spokesman for John Carris Investments did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
A person close to the building said that they were unaware of Mr. Corzine’s plans.
“We certainly didn’t know anything about it until we saw it in the paper this morning,” said the person. “It’s not like he [Corzine] is renting space from us,” the person added.
40 Wall Street, located near the New York Stock Exchange, has seen a flurry of leasing activity in recent weeks. NYC pharmaceutical giant Duane Reade relocated its corporate headquarters to the 72-story building, where it already has a sushi and hair-styling megastore inside the building. Music publishing company The Harry Fox Agency also moved to 40 Wall Street from its former offices at 601 W. 26th Street.
A person close to John Carris Investments said that Mr. Corzine is looking for office space but is not looking to join the firm itself, The WSJ reported.
MF Global Holdings filed for bankruptcy protection last October after bets it had made on euro zone debts caused the company to collapse.
Mr. Corzine stepped down as the chief executive of MF Global Holdings in November.
But his MF Global Holdings hangover continues. Yesterday, a group of 38,000 Montana farmers who were customers of MF Global Holdings filed a class action lawsuit against Corzine, claiming the former Goldman bigwig had used money from their accounts to pay off debts.
Daniel Edward Rosen is reachable at DRosen@Observer.com
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