Lawyerly Lairs, Real Estate

Paul Weiss Staying Put on Sixth Avenue

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You know who is in a strong position right now? Companies that are renting a large amount of office space in Manhattan. The real estate market is terrible, and landlords are offering sweetheart deals to keep tenants in the building.
Paul Weiss was apparently looking for an office upgrade, but the owners of 1285 6th Ave. convinced the firm to stick around. Crain’s New York Business reports:

In one of the largest real estate deals of the year, law firm Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison reached a deal to renew its lease and take an additional two floors at 1285 Sixth Ave. for a total of about 550,000 square feet, sources close to the transaction said.

That doesn’t sound like a bad deal. It’s one that will save the firm the expense of relocation. And the fact that Paul Weiss is getting extra floors can’t be a bad thing, right? Maybe they’ll have to hire more lawyers for that additional space?
Paul Weiss had a lot of options for office space. After the jump, we look at the midtown ghost town.


There is so much available office space in New York City that it’s a wonder they don’t start selling it at the new Costco. Crain’s explains that a lot of landlords wanted Paul Weiss’s business:

The firm had spent months conducting an exhaustive search for a new office and carefully examining the growing number of large spaces available. Sources said the firm considered 11 Times Square, a still-tenantless 40-story building slated to open next year, as well as Worldwide Plaza , which is about 40% empty. At one point, Paul Weiss was reportedly negotiating for space in a building that Vornado Realty Trust was planning to construct over the Port Authority bus terminal, across from 11 Times Square on Eighth Avenue.

We covered Paul Weiss’s negotiations for that planned space over Port Authority in this post, from May 2008. But back to the present:

In fact, the firm had plenty of options from which to choose. There are 54 blocks of space larger than 100,000 square feet now available in midtown, nearly double the 28 blocks available a year ago, according to Cushman & Wakefield Inc. The recession, along with the contraction of the financial industry, has flooded the market with millions of square feet of sublease space. At the same time, many companies have put the brakes on expansion, adding to the pressure on the market.

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Despite all those options, Paul Weiss is staying put and expanding. But are they hiring?
Paul Weiss inks 550,000-SF renewal [Crain’s New York Business]
Earlier: Lawyerly Lairs: Weil Gotshal to Brooklyn, Paul Weiss to… Bus Terminal?

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