J. Crew Looking To Take Over BNY Mellon's Brookfield Place HQ
As Facebook is pushing J. Crew out of its corporate home on Broadway, the retailer is looking to move above one of its Downtown Manhattan storefronts.
J. Crew is in negotiations to sublease BNY Mellon's 300K SF corporate headquarters at 225 Liberty St., one of the office buildings in Brookfield Place, the former World Financial Center that the Canadian equity giant turned into a dining and shopping destination, including a J. Crew store at 225 Vesey St. The retailer would take the entirety of the space, which is leased through 2034, Commercial Observer reports.
BNY Mellon signed the headquarters lease in 2014 after selling its former headquarters at One Wall Street to Macklowe Properties, which is converting the building to luxury condominiums. It also owns 101 Barclay St. near Brookfield Place, and announced in January it would vacate its new headquarters and consolidate its employees on Barclay Street.
J. Crew is headquartered in 350K SF at 770 Broadway, but Facebook is growing in that building, and the apparel dealer could be bought out of its lease by landlord Vornado so as to accommodate more growth for the internet titan, according to The Real Deal.
The real estate wheeling and dealing would be a boon to a company that is rapidly closing stores as it struggles to adjust to the new realities of retail. Asking rents in Downtown Manhattan were more than $6/SF less in February than in Midtown South, where 770 Broadway is located, according to Colliers International.
