By Daniel Geiger
A team from the real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield that is handling leasing for the midtown office building 623 Fifth Avenue has big expectations for the property, including rents in the triple figures.
The roughly 350,000 s/f tower is owned by the landlord Charles Cohen and was handed to a leasing team led by Bruce Mosler and Arthur Mirante earlier this year after the pair, who are both former chief executives at C&W, were named leasing agents for Cohen’s entire Manhattan portfolio.
Although Cohen owns other well-known midtown office towers, including 3 Park Avenue and 805 Third Avenue, because of its location and infrastructure, 623 Fifth Avenue appears to be his most valuable asset.
Mosler and his team are currently marketing a stack of floors from 19 to 21 in the 36-story building, for asking rents in the $70s per s/f. The roughly 60,000 s/f block is being vacated by Satellite Asset Management, a hedge fund that elected to wind down its operations after sustaining heavy losses during the recession.
“The building has incredible materials and amenities,” said David Glassman, a C&W broker on Mosler’s team, who is one of the lead brokers handling the assignment. “The building oversees the Rockefeller Center skating rink, it has raised floors that allow tenants to set up trading systems and other equipment and above standard ceiling heights. The investment in this building has been tremendous.”
Bruce Mosler has been actively leasing space in Cohen’s portfolio, including helping to arrange a 200,000 s/f deal with the media and publishing firm Meredith at 805 Third last year. Mosler said that when space comes available higher in the building, he would seek premium rental rates for the space.
“We’re looking for rents in the $80s and $90s for floors above 25 and rents as high as $140 potentially for the building’s uppermost floors,” Mosler speculated.
