In a huge Manhattan upheaval, IBM is transferring its countless Big Apple workers from ten various addresses into one– specifically, to One Madison Avenue. The 328,000 square-foot lease was signed just hours back on Monday and seems the biggest new lease in the city up until now this year.
The 1.4 million-square-foot One Madison is a redevelopment of SL Green, which is including a brand-new, glass-wrapped tower on top of the 19th Century limestone-façade initial at the corner of East 23rd Street throughout from Madison Square Park. Construction is to cover by November, 2023.
The New York Post called the project a risky, “$2.3 billion speculative plunge” by the designer in December 2020, when the city’s business world was closed down and nobody knew what the future may hold.
As One Madison Avenue’s anchor occupant, IBM will occupy parts of floors two and seven, the entire eighth through tenth floors and a portion of the ground floor, where it will have its own lobby entryway.
IBM was long prowling for a single address to combine its scattered Manhattan operations, consisting of at 590 Madison Ave. and 51 Astor Location. The new digs will have fewer square feet than the combined older ones, showing the increased efficiency that arises from a reorganization into a single workplace geared to 21st Century requirements.
The tech giant’s global headquarters will remain in Armonk, NY.
Although the Grand Central location is Manhattan’s most sought-after office market right now, the SL Green-IBM talks in Midtown South began before the pandemic, according to SL Green leasing head Steven Durels.
“They took a pause during Covid-19,” Durels said. “Once IBM decided on their new real estate requirements, they re-engaged us.”
IBM and SL Greene started working out prior to the pandemic.NurPhoto Durels said that SL Green CEO Marc Holliday and IBM CEO Arvind Krishna ““met face to face once there was a clear consensus that One Madison had everything the company wanted to bring its employees back to the office,” Durels stated.
The deal “says everything about what big tenants want in the post-Covid world,” Durels said. They consist of a DOAS heating and cooling system to flow 100 percent fresh outside air; a Chelsea Piers Fitness center; large brand-new windows in the podium-level floors; and, in the case of IBM, a 34,000 square-foot outdoor terrace on the tenth flooring. The No. 6 subway station listed below offers direct access to mass transit.
IBM vice-president of business operations and services Joanne Wright said the brand-new location “will create a modern and dynamic experience for our employees, our clients and our ecosystem partners” and “help to attract the kind of talent we need to keep IBM at the vanguard of innovation.”
Lease terms were not released to the public, but sources speculated that they were of the triple-digits per square foot variety, consistent with the existing market for the premium area, however it could not be verified.
The IBM deal and the recently-signed Chelsea Piers Physical fitness retail lease for 56,000 square feet still leave the bulk of the job’s 1.4 million square feet available. But Durels said advanced talks are ongoing for much of that.
IBM was represented by Cushman & Wakefield’s Patrick Murphy, Josh Kuriloff and Winston Schromm. Jones Lang LaSalle’s Paul Glickman, Alex Chudnoff, Diana Biasotti and Ben Bass acted for SL Green.
