NY Life Building Gets First Major HQ Tenant

NEW YORK CITY-In a major expansion move, Thornton-Tomasetti Group has signed a deal for 70,000 sf at the New York Life Building. The international engineering and design firm is the first major tenant to commit to the 51 Madison Ave. site for its headquarters. TTG, which currently occupies approximately 40,000 sf at 641 Ave. of the Americas, expects to relocate to the new space by early next year.

The CB Richard Ellis team of Alan Desino, Timothy Dempsey, Christopher Mansfield and Mary Ann Tighe negotiated the 15-year transaction on behalf of Thornton-Tomasetti. Cushman & Wakefield’s Paul Glickman and Mitti Liebersohn represented New York Life.

Desino tells GlobeSt.com TTG was attracted to the neighborhood, the amenities and the proximity to transportation as well as the building’s infrastructure and the ability to have contiguous space. The site is currently being built out to accommodate the firm’s current and future space needs. He calls the move to a contiguous floor plan “a major advantage which automatically enhances its productivity and provides them with the opportunity to design an environment fostering a more collaborative atmosphere.” No financial terms were released, but he says it was an “extremely advantageous financial” transaction.