NEW YORK CITY-The World Gold Council, which runs the ETF SPDR Gold Shares, is taking 11,500 square feet at 510 Madison Ave. The deal will give the council the entire 9^th floor in the building and more than double the size its US headquarters.

As the economic downturn took hold, and investors flocked to safer, tried and true investment opportunities, gold--and ETF trading of the metal--took off. 

“It’s a pretty interesting story,” Zev Holzman a Studley managing director who represented the council in the deal, says. “We moved them a few years ago into 5,000 square feet and everybody thought that would be the home for the World Gold Council for at least the next ten years.” Holzman and Studley’s executive managing director Paul Revson represented the tenant.

Holzman tells GlobeSt.com that the asking rent when the deal closed was around $95 per square foot--it has since increased to roughly $105, according to reports.

The World Gold Council has subleased its 4,948-square foot current space at 424 Madison Ave. to an accounting firm, Rifkin & Lubcher, according to a release announcing the deal. At 510 Madison Ave. it joins a growing list of tenants, including SAC Capital, Jay Goldman, Senator Investments and Chieftain Capital.

But the WGC’s space will be somewhat unique, Holzman says. “The build-out is interesting because they are importing their British architect Peldon Rose to build out the space exactly the same as their London space,” he says. “I think its going to be a spectacular space.”