When your name is splayed in 15-foot-high letters across the top of a significant Midtown building, it’s hard to give it up.
We’ve now learned that mighty MetLife is considering a consolidation into its namesake jumbo skyscraper at 200 Park Ave., where it towers over both Park and Grand Central Terminal.
Sources said it is negotiating a lease of just over 90,000 square feet on one floor in the giant base of the 58-story tower, where its executive boardroom looks out from windows close to the top.
MetLife currently has a long and cheap lease in Long Island City, where its escalated rent is in the $30s per foot, sources said. But it now subleases out all of that space to other companies.
As we previously told you, MetLife moved all its employees back into Manhattan, with most going to 1095 Ave. of the Americas.
That reinvented former Verizon building overlooks Bryant Park, and the company leases what is now the most expensive top portion of the building, where rents could fetch over $80 per square foot.
MetLife is now considering another play on the spreads and intends to move employees to what is a cheaper and more efficient one-story in the base of 200 Park Ave., owned by Tishman Speyer Properties.
Since rents have risen so much at the Sixth Avenue building, it could sublease, make money on the difference and still provide a good deal for the subtenant.
Of course, MetLife could also be negotiating with Ivanhoe Cambridge, the upcoming owner of 1095, to let it out of the lease so the Canadian company can rent it at the higher rents.
“MetLife has not decided to move any employees to 200 Park and has no space available for sublease at 1095 Ave. of the Americas,” said MetLife spokesman Fred Pieretti.
Renowned artist and collector Hunt Slonem is moving from one pioneering location to another.
This time he will be moving his antiques, flea-market finds, tropical birds, art studio and offices to a sun-filled 30,623 square feet in Sunset Park.
Slonem will have the entire sixth floor and part of the second floor at 14 53rd St., which is the tallest building in the low-rise warehouse area. On this street also known as Whale Square, the former Whale Oil Building sits between First Avenue and the waterfront.
He will be moving from the entire third floor of 22,500 square feet at 509 W. 34th St. in Hudson Yards, which is now a development site.
We have followed Slonem’s whimsical art and moves through the years as he previously had workspaces at 545 W. 45th St., 303 W. 10th St. and the Starrett-Lehigh Building.
“It’s more of a jaw-dropper than that,” Slonem said, describing the new space, multiple windows and water views. “It’s a new frontier and I’m looking forward to it.”
A cousin to Tama Janowitz and brother to writer James Slonim, he is now celebrating the release of his new book, “When Art Meets Design.”
The tome shows off the décor in his various homes, including two lakeside mansions in Louisiana that pair vintage furniture with contemporary art and antiques and showcase his unique collection for Lee Jofa.
Carri Lyon of Cushman & Wakefield represented Slonem in the 15-year deal with SL Realty, which coincidently also owns the similar looking Starrett-Lehigh Building. SL Realty was represented in-house by Peter Thorsen. Asking rents in the building, which is in the midst of upgrading tenancies, range from the mid-teens to low $20s per foot.
“Hunt’s new space is one of the most beautiful loft spaces I’ve ever seen, with very high ceilings, windows on four sides looking over the water and resembles a cathedral with its two rows of columns,” said Lyon of the fifth space she has found for the artist.
Tishman Speyer Properties purchased the Hudson Yards building, which will be torn down in 2015 to make way for a gigantic super-tall 2.55 million-square-foot building with an estimated cost of $3.29 billion.
A development team led by Jonathan Stein’s Diversified Realty Advisors and California-based SunCal completed the purchase of the former General Motors plant site in Sleepy Hollow on Tuesday.
The first phase of the 1,177-unit, 170,000 square-foot commercial, retail and hotel development known as Lighthouse Landing will consist of some condos, townhomes and a rental building, but site approval and infrastructure work could take another year.
Pre-planning has been ongoing since the group contracted to buy the roughly 70 acres on the west and south portions of the site last year. The purchase price and contributions to Sleepy Hollow will total just over $50 million, sources said. The parties could not be reached or declined comment.
