Silverstein Lands HQ Of Tech-Oriented Trading Firm At 120 Broadway
Tower Research Capital, a financial trading platform that also has technology and engineering arms, is consolidating its two New York City offices into a new global headquarters at 120 Broadway.
Silverstein Properties signed the company to a 122K SF, 15-year lease at the 1.9M SF, H-shaped landmark office tower, it announced Wednesday. Tower Research plans to move into the the 37th through 39th floors of the 40-story property in late 2024.
Tower Research will be relocating from offices at 377 Broadway and 148 Lafayette, according to a release. The move constitutes an expansion, but it is unclear how much the firm is giving up at its other Lower Manhattan offices.
“In our search for a new global headquarters, our primary goal was to find a great space to cultivate our unique culture, and foster employee collaboration as we continue to grow,” Tower Research Capital Global Head of Corporate Services Joseph Doherty said in a statement. “120 Broadway offers inspiring space across three top floors, access to world-class amenities, the infrastructure needed to accommodate our complex networks and systems, and a central location that will allow us to attract and retain top talent.”
Silverstein declined to disclose the occupancy at 120 Broadway following the lease. Asking rents in the building are $70 per SF, a spokesperson said.
Silverstein, which developed 3, 4 and 7 World Trade Center, spent $52M renovating 120 Broadway, knowns as the Equitable Building, adding tenant-only amenities including its penthouse, known as The Banker’s Club, a lounge, a food hall, a yoga room and a collection of bespoke spaces including a speakeasy and an arcade.
Tower Research Capital joins a collection of tenants who have moved to the building within the last year. Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors left digs in Midtown in November to move to 120 Broadway, while the New York City Housing Development Corp. also opted to move into the building, signing a deal to relocate from 110 William St. last month.
Other newer tenants include real estate firms The Domain Cos. and Kasirer, as well as anchor tenant Macmillan Publishers, the Alliance for Downtown New York and The Brennan Center for Justice.
Silverstein’s Joseph Artusa and Harlan Strader brokered the deal in-house for the landlord along with Newmark’s Scott Klau, Brian Waterman and Erik Harris. Cushman & Wakefield’s Luke Raimondo, Mark Weiss and Michael Mathias handled the deal for Tower Research Capital, which also had in-house representation from Joseph Doherty, Don Wehmann and Matthew Faucetta.
The lease at 120 Broadway comes at a moment of tension in NYC’s office market, where owners are holding their breath in the hopes of a post-Labor Day push by companies to get employees back in physical offices.
Manhattan’s office market began to show serious cracks earlier this summer, with JLL identifying 15M SF of office properties that it categorized as “underwater.”
Leasing has begun to pick up this summer, with July and August the most active months in the city since January, according to Colliers. The availability rate in Downtown increased again to 21.3%, with available space more than doubling since March 2020, as tenants have favored buildings — particularly newer towers — in Midtown South.
The high-profile instances where landlords have defaulted on loans or had to restructure debt over the summer months have begun to prompt tenants to scrutinize landlords’ financial standings before signing in a building.
