By Holly Dutton
Web giant Yahoo is moving its headquarters to Times Square and taking four floors at the former New York Times building at 229 West 43rd Street.
The announcement came during a press conference with Mayor Bloomberg in Midtown May 20.
“For a while now, Yahoo has been looking for a home here in New York,” said Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer at the press conference. “I’m proud to say we’ve found it.”
Yahoo currently has three offices in Manhattan for its 500 New York- based employees; 1065 Avenue of the Americas near Bryant Park, 1540 Broadway (at 45th Street) and 11 West 19th Street in Flatiron.
The new headquarters will consolidate the offices into one main headquarters, with expansion room for an additional 200, said Mayer.
“We couldn’t be more delighted to have our home here in New York,” she said.
According to the New York Times, the web company signed a long term lease for the 9th through 12th floors in the 18-story building and will be moving at the end of the year.
The New York Post reported that the lease was signed for 176,000 s/f.
A spokesperson for Yahoo did not return calls for comment by press time.
“This really is very exciting news,” said Mayor Bloomberg at the press conference.
“It helps show what a big player New York City has become in the tech industry, something we’ve worked at for a long time.”
The mayor praised Robert Steel, deputy mayor for Economic Development, and Seth Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation for their work in bringing schools and companies to New York City.
Other tech firms in the building at 229 West 43rd include search engine Citysearch and database software firm 10gen.
The announcement coincided with Yahoo’s purchase of blogging giant Tumblr for $1.1 billion. Yahoo said Tumblr will still operate independently and stay in its offices in Flatiron.
Yahoo was represented in the lease negotiation by Matt Horner of Jones Lang LaSalle in the deal, while Blackstone, which owns the building, was represented by Lance Korman, Brian Waterman, Jonathan Tootell and Brent Ozarowski of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.
