Tishman Speyer Lands 212 KSF Brooklyn HQ Lease
A nonprofit will occupy six floors, bringing the asset to full occupancy.
Brooklyn Defender Services has leased 212,000 square feet across six full floors at The Wheeler, a 14-story office development in downtown Brooklyn, N.Y., owned by Tishman Speyer.
BDS, a nonprofit public defense office that provides free legal services, inked a 31-year lease for the space for its headquarters. It will consolidate its workforce from several downtown Brooklyn locations at the new site in late 2026.
The 617,000-square-foot office property is now fully leased with two additional nonprofits using the space for educational purposes.
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In March 2025, Tishman Speyer signed a 35-year, 150,000-square-foot lease with Brooklyn Prospect Charter School to occupy floors nine through 11 for a new high school campus. The space features more than 25,000 square feet of outdoor space, a lobby entrance and a gymnasium with a basketball court.
St. Francis College moved its entire campus within the premises in 2022, taking 255,000 square feet on floors five through seven.
Floor plates range from 29,000 to 92,000 square feet. The Wheeler’s amenities include an on-site bike locker, rooftop terrace, conference rooms and rooftop garden.
Tishman Speyer was represented in-house by Managing Director Megan Sheehan and a CBRE team of New York Tri-State Region CEO Mary Ann Tighe, Senior Vice Presidents Joseph Cirone and Zachary Price, Executive Vice President Gerry Miovski and Vice President Masha Dudelzak. BDS was represented by Managing Directors Jonathan Franzel and Ryan Gessin of Newmark.
A long history
Tishman Speyer erected The Wheeler, located at 422 Fulton St., atop a historic Art Deco building originally built in 1929. The 14-story, 844,378-square-foot building previously housed a Macy’s department store on the lower four floors. Macy’s closed the Fulton Street location in January 2025 as part of a national cost-cutting initiative.
The property, which also includes an older cast-iron structure built in the 1870s as an Abraham and Strauss store, is also known as 181 Livingston St. Macy’s sold part of the asset in August 2015 to Tishman Speyer for an adaptive reuse project that added the 10 stories of Class A office space. Tishman Speyer paid Macy’s $170 million in cash and another $100 million over three years for renovation costs. The work was completed in 2020.
Bank OZK financed the construction with a $194 million note in 2017. The debt was refinanced with a $164.2 million loan in 2021, according to Yardi Matrix data. Tishman Speyer refinanced the asset in 2024 with a $301 million loan, the same source shows.
Recent Tishman Speyer leases
The Wheeler isn’t the only Tishman Speyer property where the global real estate firm has inked leases lately. Earlier this month, the company signed law firm Vedder to a 12-year lease extension for its global headquarters at 222 N. LaSalle St. in Chicago. The law firm will continue to occupy 163,000 square feet across five floors through 2041. It has been located at the 26-story building since 1988.
In Manhattan, Tishman Speyer announced two lease deals in March. Global investment management firm Brown Advisory inked a 34,748-square-foot lease at 520 Madison Ave., a 1 million-square-foot tower. The firm is taking the entire 27th floor and part of the 26th floor.
And Tishman Speyer also added a new tenant to the roster at 1 Rockefeller Plaza, part of the Rockefeller Center complex, with the signing of a 22,000-square-foot, 15-year lease with Chimera Investment Corp. The firm is taking the entire 32nd floor and portions of the 33rd and 34th floors.
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