Investment Firm Takes 51,000 SF Expansion at 787 Seventh

NEW YORK CITY-Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., an investment banking and brokerage firm specializing in the financial services sector, has expanded its headquarters in Midtown with a new 51,000-sf lease at 787 Seventh Ave. Financial details of the deal were not released, but the building’s average rent is $47 per sf. This brings the firm’s total in the building to approximately 120,000 sf.Keefe Bruyette & Woods, which previously occupied the fourth floor and part of the sixth floor for a total of 68,000 sf at 787 Seventh, signed a 13-year lease for the entire fifth floor. The company relocated to the building from Lower Manhattan following the destruction of its 98,000-sf offices at 2 World Trade Center.

Cushman & Wakefield’s James P. Quinn, Pamela J. Walsh and Kimberley Ellery represented Keefe Bruyette & Woods. The CB Richard Ellis team of Robert Alexander, Melissa Bazar, Howard Fiddle and Joan Meixner arranged expansion on behalf of the building owner, Equitable Life Assurance Society and asset manager, Lend Lease Real Estate Investments. According to C&W, the transaction started out as a sublease from Aon, which then negotiated a lease termination with the landlord, making the deal direct.

“This is a company that has forged a massive resurgence,” explains Quinn, a C&W executive director. “We were able to negotiate for a contiguous floor in a building that the firm’s top executives wanted to remain in for the long-term.”