By Daniel Geiger
Thiam Management, a financial firm involved in trading operations, has signed a deal for just under 6,000 s/f at 510 Madison Avenue.
The firm is taking half of the building’s eighth floor, a space that had been cut into two pre-built office units. The other office, which is roughly the same size, was leased in recent months to a financial firm called Africa Global. Both the deals had rents in the $90s per s/f.
Paul Amrich, an executive vice president at the real estate services company CB Richard Ellis who leads a team from the company that handles leasing at the property, said that more floors at the property will be carved into pre-built spaces. The units, which are prepared office spaces, cater to small tenants, which typically lease space only a few months before they intend to move in and don’t have the time to go through the process of designing and building their office from the ground up.
“The leasing on the eighth floor is supportive of the continued interest in the building,” Amrich said, who noted that he did the deals with Thiam and Africa Global in partnership with Kerry Powers, an associate on his team.
Amrich said that more floors would be pre-built and said that there were already plans underway to split the 10th, 18th and 24th floors in the 30-story tower into prepared units varying in size from 2,500 s/f to 7,000 s/f.
“We want to offer a variety of sizes to the market at various price points,” Amrich said.
Since being acquired last year by the real estate investment trust Boston Properties, 510 Madison has attracted leasing activity, a marked turnaround from its fortunes during the downturn.
Amid the recession, development of the property, which was then under construction, was marred by delays and funding issues and Macklowe Properties, the real estate firm that was building the 350,000 s/f tower, nearly lost control of the property. In the end, Harry Macklowe, Macklowe Properties’ chief executive, reached a deal last year to sell the building to the real estate investment trust Boston Properties, which is one of the biggest landlords in the city.
Its financial position restored in the transaction and the image of instability vanquished, the property has been luring prospective tenants.
One broker familiar with the building and the upper tier of the rental market, said that the property actually offers a value proposition to high end tenants. The person pointed out that the building’s space is brand new and state of the art, a rarity in midtown, where the average age of even the most prestigious buildings is often at least a few decades old. At the same time, the building’s rents, which are below $100 per s/f on many of the floors, especially in the base, is significantly less than other top tier buildings.
“I think there are going to be a lot of deals there,” the person said.
