The south rises in NYC
Fleeing Midtown for tech-updated downtown
MACMILLAN Publishers has joined the great southern migration of media companies from Midtown and Midtown South.
As we first reported on nypost.com on Monday, the global trade-book publisher signed a jumbo lease for 261,000 square feet at Silverstein Properties’ 120 Broadway, in the heart of a district once exclusively known for finance.
The firm will move into floors 22 to 26 at its new home in early 2019 from the Flatiron Building and a few other locations.
There are many reasons for tenants, especially in the TAMI (technology, advertising, media and information) sector, to head to the FiDi/World Trade Center area — among them, lower rents and proximity to young creative types who live in the area and in nearby Brooklyn and New Jersey.
But Larry Silverstein singled out one particular motivation:
“I think it’s an opportunity to move from buildings that have zero technology to buildings that have significant technology,” he told us.
He added, “120 Broadway is typical of that, and so is Four World Trade Center.”
Silverstein spent tens of millions of dollars to modernize 120 Broadway, a 1915vintage tower with 1.8 million square feet.
“We continuously upgraded 120 Broadway to keep it totally competitive,” Silverstein said. His 4 WTC will soon be home to music-sharing giant Spotify, which will move there from Sixth Avenue in Flatiron.
Since 2005, some 739 companies have moved to lower Manhattan, according to the Downtown Alliance.
Of that total, 419 were in TAMI or related fields, comprising 59 percent of all space leased in the past dozen years.
The media cavalcade includes Condé Nast, Time Inc., the Associated Press, GroupM, MediaMath, Droga5 and SportsNet New York.
Downtown Alliance President Jessica Lappin said Macmillan’s move was “more evidence that Lower Manhattan is once again the center of the publishing world” as it was in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Lappin was especially elated that it was coming to 120 Broadway, which has also been the alliance’s home for 20 years. Macmillan executive An
drew Weber noted, “The architectural heritage of 120 Broadway means we will be moving from one of the city’s great iconic buildings to another.”
It was unclear whether the Flatiron Building’s majority owner, Italy’s Sorgente Group, will market Macmillan’s former space to new office tenants or convert the landmark to a hotel as some have speculated.
Macmillan, a division of Germany’s familyowned Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, includes Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Flatiron Books, Henry Holt & Co. and St. Martin’s Press.
Colliers International Vice Chairman Leon
Manoff, who represented the tenant, called Macmillan “a multifaceted organization whose various units have unique identities within the company.
“The size and configuration of 120 Broadway’s floors allow for operational efficiencies and personalization of space for individual groups — absolutely essential for successful collaboration, creativity and author service,” Manoff added. Silverstein was repped in-house by Roger A. Silverstein, Joseph Artusa and Camille McGratty. Asking rents at 1.9-millionsquare-foot 120 Broadway are in the mid-$50s per square foot.
Around 400,000 square feet are on the market.
Silverstein has owned 120 Broadway since 1980. But, interestingly, his family-run company doesn’t own the land.
The tower is on a ground lease it bought from late real estate investor Sarah Korein, who died in 1998. The land is now owned by her heirs. Silverstein shared, with a chuckle: “Believe it or not, the ground lease is established for 999 years without reappraisals. We have only about 950 years to go.”