Jones Lang LaSalle
WTC GRADE FOR MOODY'S
By STEVE CUOZZO
June 20, 2006 -- IN a major breakthrough for Larry Silverstein, Moody's Investors Service and the developer have signed a term sheet that will likely lead to a 600,000-square-foot lease at 7 World Trade Center.
Insiders expressed optimism that the preliminary agreement - signed late last week - will result in a done deal soon.
A term sheet is a non-binding agreement on the major financial terms of a lease. Not every term sheet results in a lease, but most do.
Under the 20-year arrangement now being worked out, Moody's will occupy floors 13-27 of 7 WTC and move in by September 2007.
A Moody's lease would be a blockbuster breakthrough for Silverstein at recently opened 7 WTC, where a temporary scarcity of tenants has been blamed by Mayor Bloomberg on Silverstein's demand for $50-plus per square foot.
Although new Midtown buildings now fetch $75 and up, Bloomberg thinks Silverstein should charge $35 a foot - the rate at downtown addresses 25 years older.
So far, leases have been signed for a mere 60,000 feet at 1.6 million-square-foot 7 WTC.
A widely reported term sheet with Chinese real estate company Vantone for 200,000 feet has yet to result in a lease. Sources attribute the delay to the complexities of negotiating with a distant foreign company.
Moody's current headquarters is just two blocks away from 7 WTC at 99 Church St., which Moody's owns and where it fills all 340,000 feet.
"Their people and Larry's people know each other," an insider said.
There was no comment from Cushman & Wakefield, which represents Moody's, or from CB Richard Ellis, which reps Silverstein.
Jones Lang LaSalle's Peter Riguardi, who reps Vantone, said the Moody's term sheet is "great for the building and hopefully they can get it all done."
*
In what's surely one of the year's most creative deals, law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is more than doubling its space at Tishman Speyer's Chrysler Center.
In a complex set of transactions arranged by the firm's rep - a CB Richard Ellis team led by Kenneth D. Rapp - Simpson Thacher will have nearly 80,000 square feet in 666 Third Ave., known as Chrysler East, and in the landmark Chrysler Building at 405 Lexington Ave.
The firm already has 36,092 square feet on the fourth floor of 666 Third. This summer, it will break through a wall to expand into the fourth floor of the Chrysler Building, creating a contiguous floor space of 78,255 square feet.
Rapp's team also advised the tenant now in the Chrysler Building space to be taken over by Simpson Thacher - the U.N. Office for Project Services, which had a lease through 2014.
"We called the U.N. group," Rapp said. "They had no broker, so we worked with them."
Simpson Thacher's lease at No. 666 was to be up in 2010, so the deal includes an extension until the end of 2018 - the same time its lease is to expire on 600,000 feet at nearby 425 Lexington Ave.
"We arranged it so the expirations would all happen at once," Rapp said.
Tishman Speyer declined to comment. Terms were not disclosed. Asking rents on the lower floors of the Chrysler Building are in the $60s.
steve.cuozzo@nypost.com
WTC GRADE FOR MOODY'S
By STEVE CUOZZO
June 20, 2006 -- IN a major breakthrough for Larry Silverstein, Moody's Investors Service and the developer have signed a term sheet that will likely lead to a 600,000-square-foot lease at 7 World Trade Center.
Insiders expressed optimism that the preliminary agreement - signed late last week - will result in a done deal soon.
A term sheet is a non-binding agreement on the major financial terms of a lease. Not every term sheet results in a lease, but most do.
Under the 20-year arrangement now being worked out, Moody's will occupy floors 13-27 of 7 WTC and move in by September 2007.
A Moody's lease would be a blockbuster breakthrough for Silverstein at recently opened 7 WTC, where a temporary scarcity of tenants has been blamed by Mayor Bloomberg on Silverstein's demand for $50-plus per square foot.
Although new Midtown buildings now fetch $75 and up, Bloomberg thinks Silverstein should charge $35 a foot - the rate at downtown addresses 25 years older.
So far, leases have been signed for a mere 60,000 feet at 1.6 million-square-foot 7 WTC.
A widely reported term sheet with Chinese real estate company Vantone for 200,000 feet has yet to result in a lease. Sources attribute the delay to the complexities of negotiating with a distant foreign company.
Moody's current headquarters is just two blocks away from 7 WTC at 99 Church St., which Moody's owns and where it fills all 340,000 feet.
"Their people and Larry's people know each other," an insider said.
There was no comment from Cushman & Wakefield, which represents Moody's, or from CB Richard Ellis, which reps Silverstein.
Jones Lang LaSalle's Peter Riguardi, who reps Vantone, said the Moody's term sheet is "great for the building and hopefully they can get it all done."
*
In what's surely one of the year's most creative deals, law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is more than doubling its space at Tishman Speyer's Chrysler Center.
In a complex set of transactions arranged by the firm's rep - a CB Richard Ellis team led by Kenneth D. Rapp - Simpson Thacher will have nearly 80,000 square feet in 666 Third Ave., known as Chrysler East, and in the landmark Chrysler Building at 405 Lexington Ave.
The firm already has 36,092 square feet on the fourth floor of 666 Third. This summer, it will break through a wall to expand into the fourth floor of the Chrysler Building, creating a contiguous floor space of 78,255 square feet.
Rapp's team also advised the tenant now in the Chrysler Building space to be taken over by Simpson Thacher - the U.N. Office for Project Services, which had a lease through 2014.
"We called the U.N. group," Rapp said. "They had no broker, so we worked with them."
Simpson Thacher's lease at No. 666 was to be up in 2010, so the deal includes an extension until the end of 2018 - the same time its lease is to expire on 600,000 feet at nearby 425 Lexington Ave.
"We arranged it so the expirations would all happen at once," Rapp said.
Tishman Speyer declined to comment. Terms were not disclosed. Asking rents on the lower floors of the Chrysler Building are in the $60s.
steve.cuozzo@nypost.com
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 9:47 AM
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