NEW YORK CITY-Lower Manhattan got another vote of support late Monday afternoon when investment-banking firm Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. signed a 270,000-square-foot lease to occupy seven floors in MetLife’s 85 Broad St. for a 15-year term. Under this deal, the company’s new Downtown location will house Oppenheimer’s corporate headquarters and will consolidate its primary business locations in Manhattan here.

Unnamed sources tell GlobeSt.com that the company will consolidate its asset management, investment banking, trading and capital markets divisions from 300 Madison Ave. and 125 Broad St. to the 30-story, 1.1-million-square-foot office tower, formerly home to Goldman Sachs. Occupancy is expected in late 2011.

The move itself signifies “Oppenheimer’s ongoing commitment” to New York City’s traditional Financial District, which is happening in tandem with the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site, according to a company statement. Oppenheimer also “intends to contribute to reviving Downtown’s commercial and retail economy.”

While unavailable for comment in-time for deadline to GlobeSt.com, Albert Lowenthal, CEO of Oppenheimer, says in a statement that the company is “proud to increase operations” in the Financial District and “be part of the ongoing revitalization of the area.” The neighborhood has seen a flurry of deals in the second quarter alone, including the landmark one-million-square-foot Conde Nast lease at One World Trade Center and the $120-million sale of the former Verizon building at 375 Pearl St. 

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MetLife declined to comment about the terms of the deal to GlobeSt.com, but Robert Merck, senior managing director and head of real estate investments for MetLife, says in a statement: “Having Oppenheimer in this outstanding asset, which has a number of attractive amenities and is in a prime location, reinforces 85 Broad’s prominent presence in Lower Manhattan.”

Cushman & Wakefield, which represented Oppenheimer in its lease at 85 Broad St., led by Matt Astrachan, Steven Bauer, Mitch Konsker and Jon Herman. Astrachan and Konsker, who started work on the assignment while at C&W, are now vice chairmen with Jones Lang LaSalle.  Bauer is a C&W executive director and Herman is a managing director in C&W’s consulting group.  JLL represented MetLife, led by Peter Riguardi, president of JLL’s New York office, vice chairman Frank Doyle, managing director Cynthia Wasserberger and associate Alexis Tener.

Oppenheimer’s 85 Broad deal, however, is unrelated to a previous lease deal the company executed at 200 Park Ave. in May, unnamed sources say. Months ago, Oppenheimer renewed its 90,000-square-foot lease at Tishman Speyer’s MetLife building on the 24^th and 25^th floors of the building. The new deal, sources say, expands its presence both in Midtown and Downtown.