By Sarah Trefethen
With net-leased tenant Walt Disney Co. on its way out, the commercial office space in 157 Columbus Avenue is in for an infrastructure upgrade and facelift that will include a new lobby, elevator cabs and bathrooms.
The Brodsky Organization owns the space, and has hired a Cushman & Wakefield team led by Josh Kuriloff, Jodi Roberts and Drew Braver as exclusive leasing agents.
Davis Brody Bond will be the architect for the renovations, which are expected to wrap up by this summer.
Disney has been the sole tenant in the five-story, 69,000 s/f space since the building was built 30 years ago. This is the first time that the space has become available to the public for lease.
Removing Disney’s office-intensive installation has revealed expansive, open floor plates surrounded by windows, according to Roberts. “It’s totally changed the floors,” she said.
The commercial space sits at the base of the 32-story tower, with the higher floors given over to the kind of luxury residential condos that make up the bulk of the neighborhood’s real estate. At the corner of Columbus Avenue and 67th Street, the building is two blocks from Lincoln Center and eight blocks from Columbus Circle.
“There’s very few options in the area,” Roberts said. “It’s not an area that’s generally been corporate, but there are so many people that live in the area that want to work close to where they live that we’ve got a lot of interest.”
At the end of last year the vacancy rate in Lincoln Center’s five office buildings was just 0.3 percent, according to Cushman.
The landlord is asking for $48 psf rent in the building, and would consider leases as small as 5,000 s/f, Roberts said.
Disney Co. is consolidating into other space it already owns in the neighborhood, according to Roberts.
