By Orlando Lee Rodriguez
The Orange are coming!
In a move that signals a more visible presence downstate in New York City, Syracuse University has signed a ten-year, 20,000 s/f lease on lower Madison Avenue just south of 34th Street.
A team from Colliers International made up of Vice Chairman Andrew Roos and Tri-State President Michael T. Cohen, represented the landlord. The University was represented by James Kuhn, President of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, who sits on SU Board of Trustees Facilities Committee.
The university plans to occupy the space by the Fall 2013 semester. Other building tenants include: Triumph Learning, Regus and Sunshine and Associates.
“This was a very collaborative effort between the parties to craft a transaction that works operationally for all involved,” said Roos. “This was a wonderful opportunity to have one of the country’s leading university’s premier programs occupy full-floor space.”
The single floor through space at 136 Madison Avenue, between East 31st and 32nd Streets will be used “for academic purposes” Syracuse spokesman Kevin Quinn told The Post-Standard in Syracuse. The university will have a separate entrance on East 31st Street for students.
The Midtown South location will be the second that the university will have in Manhattan. Lubin-House, which hosts Syracuse’s MFA programs and its New York City administrative offices is on East 61st Street, between Fifth and Madison.
Syracuse University has of late become more aggressive with marketing its sports teams in New York City, traditionally the territory of St. John’s University sports teams. Ads at Yankee Stadium and on NYC Cabs, call Syracuse “New York’s College Team”. Games against St. John’s at Madison Square Garden have also begun to draw arguably more Syracuse fans than ones for the Queens based team.
In December Syracuse won the second annual ‘Pinstripe Bowl’ at Yankee Stadium beating West Virginia, 38-24.
