Media Firm Leases 200 KSF at One World Trade Center

One World Trade Center. Image courtesy of Servcorp

One World Trade Center has nabbed a new tenant, with advertising and marketing firm MDC Partners signing a nearly 200,000-square-foot lease in the iconic Lower Manhattan office skyscraper. The lease across floors 64 to 69 in the tower will house MDC’s corporate headquarters and consolidate 11 of the holding company’s partner agencies.

Built by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Durst Organization, the 104-story tower is the tallest building in the U.S. and spans 3.1 million square feet. Other major tenants of the property at 285 Fulton St. include Condé Nast and the U.S. General Services Administration.

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The MDC partner agencies heading to the tower currently occupy a number of buildings in areas of Midtown such as the Plaza District and Grand Central district. “As promised, we moved our corporate headquarters from the expensive and swanky Fifth Avenue palace to excess space in our network,” said Mark Penn, MDC chairman and CEO during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call.

“When complete later this year, centralization of our New York real estate portfolio will allow for significant cost savings of $10 to $12 million annually, starting in 2021; better efficiencies and alignments among our agencies and partners and enhanced inter-agency collaboration,” he added.

Iconic tower fills up

The new lease, with an asking rent of $69 per square foot, brings One World Trade Center to 93 percent occupancy, according to an account in the New York Post. Durst and the Port Authority have signed up several new tenants for the tower since January, including Celonis Inc., DADA Holdings, Princeton Longevity Center and Ichnos Science Inc., the partners announced.

Symphony Communications Services and Augustus Intelligence also recently expanded their footprint in the property, which opened in 2014.