"What we saw was an opportunity," says Michael Berman, vice president of leasing for Equity Office's New York region. Before Equity Office took ownership, Berman says, the building "had been marketed but not aggressively. It was not positioned as any particular type of building." The company believed the building, located near The Plaza, would benefit from the small to medium sized boutique firms that occupy many of the surrounding buildings and desired class A facilities.

Equity Office first built small units that varied in size from 2,000 sf to 8,000 sf. "What that allowed us to do was to capture that segment of the market that was willing tp pay a premium for that location and standards office," Berman says.

Ten months ago the company began marketing the space to the targeted small boutique firms. In the last three months, it managed to sign 15 leases. Corsair Investments LLC signed the most recent lease, which brought the property to 99% occupancy. The company leased 16,002 sf, occupying the 23 and 24 floors. Berman, Jopseph Artusa and Robert Fink, of Equity Office, represented the landlord in the transaction, while Louis D'Avanzo and Steven Bauer of Cushman & Wakefield represented Corsair.