NEW YORK CITY—L&L Holding Co. has signed another major media tenant at 114 Fifth Ave. Gawker Media, a digital media firm, has signed a 15-year, 58,900-square-foot lease for three full floors at the Midtown South property. Gawker will house its New York City headquarters on the entire second, third and fourth floors of the building.
Gawker expects to relocate from 210 Elizabeth St. in Soho to its new Flatiron district offices during the second quarter of 2015. Gawker, known for its brands like Gizmodo, Jezebel, Deadspin and several others, had over 125 million readers visit one of its sites last month. Jonathan Tootell, Jared Horowitz, Evan Foley and Justin Pollner of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented Gawker Media LLC in the long-term transaction, while David Berkey and Andrew Wiener of L&L Holding Company represented the landlord-in house. Asking rents were $78 per square foot.
The transaction comes on the heels of a surge of leasing activity at the century-old 20-story, 330,000-square-foot office tower. Over the last 12 months, L&L has brought 114 Fifth Ave. to over 80% occupancy, attracting a wide range of creative and technology tenants such as social media firm Mashable, Inc.; global payment giant Mastercard, Inc.; advertising agency AKQA; and news website First Look Media.
According to L&L chairman and CEO David W. Levinson, the flurry of deals at the property are the result of an ongoing, multi-million building-wide redevelopment project that is enhancing the property with new infrastructure, a glamorous new lobby, elevators, and a host of green initiatives, including a landscaped roof that will serve as a tenant amenity.
“The building has been extremely well received in the marketplace as evidenced by our successful pre-leasing,” he says. “We are now in negotiations with a number of other tenants for the balance of the building and look forward to more exciting leasing announcements in the coming months.”
The transformation of 114 Fifth Ave. began last year when L&L Holding acquired the tower in a joint venture with private equity firm Lubert-Adler. According to Berkey, EVP and director of leasing at L&L, only four 19,500 square foot floors remain available.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Rayna Katz
Rayna Katz is a seasoned business journalist whose extensive experience includes coverage of the lodging sector, travel and the culinary space. She was most recently content director for a business-to-business publisher, overseeing four publications. While at Meeting News, a travel trade publication, she received a Best Reporting award for a story on meeting cancellations in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
