Google evidently doesn't believe in playing small. Already an outsized presence in Silicon Valley, it expanded its office footprint there by the equivalent of the Empire State Building—2.8 million square feet in all. In what may be the largest lease ever inked in Silicon Valley, it signed on for all of Jay Paul Co.'s 1.9-million-square-foot Moffett Place office campus in Sunnyvale. The six-building project began as a speculative development; its 900,000-square-foot first phase is under construction. Google was already a Jay Paul tenant via a 949,000-square-foot lease at another Sunnyvale campus, Technology Corners, which represents slightly more than half of the tech firm's existing 1.7-million-square-foot presence in Sunnyvale. Newmark Cornish & Carey represented Jay Paul in the Moffett Place lease. READ MORE HERE

2013: Group M Puts a Tower on the Map

For Silverstein Properties Inc. in particular and Lower Manhattan in general, Group M's agreement to take 516,000 square feet at what will be 3 World Trade Center represented more than just another media firm heading Downtown. It also gave SPI the long-awaited ability to finish both the financing and construction of the 80-story tower at 175 Greenwich St., which had stalled at eight stories until developer Larry Silverstein could find an anchor tenant.

CBRE acted for Group M and Silverstein, which also provided in-house representation. Group M will occupy approximately nine floors at the base of the 80-story tower when it opens in 2017. The media investment management concern will consolidate its 2,400 employees from several Midtown locations to the Trade Center. READ MORE HERE

2012: State Farm Lease Proves Everything's Bigger in Texas

For a hush-hush deal, State Farm made a big splash in the Dallas market when it signed on to fill 1.52 million square feet of office space within KDC's mammoth transit-oriented development in Richardson. Before it committed what is the largest office lease and BTS recorded in Dallas history, the insurance company had signed leases for 400,000 square feet of space in nearby Irving, TX and 291,000 feet at another Richardson property.

State Farm will anchor the to-be-constructed 186-acre mixed-use development, located near North Central Expressway and President George Bush Turnpike. Cassidy Turley brokers are State Farm's agents in the area. READ MORE HERE

2011: Facebook Relocates in Biggest Lease in Decades

In what was the area's largest office lease in 20 years, Facebook Inc. announced a headquarters relocation from Palo Alto, CA to Sun Microsystems Inc.'s former campus in Menlo Park, CA. The firm struck the deal with Deutsche Bank AG's RREEF, which bought the 57-acre property from Sun Microsystems owner Oracle Corp. Financial terms of the deals weren't disclosed. The deal gave Facebook about 1 million square feet in nine Silicon Valley buildings, trumping Apple Inc.'s 865,000-square-foot deal in 1991. [IMGCAP(1)]
The space was believed to accommodate the social media giant's growth of about 50% annually, from the 2,000 employees it had in at the time the deal was signed. The campus can hold about 3,600 employees. Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP advised Facebook, which has the option to buy the property in five years. The company also bought an adjacent 22-acre property for future development. READ MORE HERE

2011: Conde Nast, Port Authority Sign on Dotted Line

Publishing giant Conde Nast signed off on a landmark one-million-square-foot deal as anchor tenant for One World Trade Center. The move gives the 1,776-foot tower—and Lower Manhattan—a major boost. Cushman & Wakefield are the leasing agents at the building. CBRE represented the publishing firm. READ MORE HERE

2010: Global Financial Firm Sets Up New Shop

Société Générale committed to 444,000 square feet for the relocation of its US headquarters to Brookfield Office Properties' 245 Park Ave., a 1.7-million-square-foot class A office and retail tower in Midtown Manhattan. The global financial services company left its existing offices at 1221 Ave. of the Americas, where it lived for two decades.

This new lease also runs for 20 years, and was comprised of a 10-year sublease from JP Morgan Chase followed by a direct lease with Brookfield. Brookfield represented itselfin the deal; CB Richard Ellis spoke for Société Générale, which has the option to expand at the building in the future. READ MORE HERE

2009: AutoTrader to Take Up Office Building

AutoTrader.com, the online classified powerhouse, plans to move to 3003 Perimeter Summit and combine five local offices with 1,200 employees into the Atlanta building. The lease would be the city's largest office deal in two years upon completion. AutoTrader, a division of locally based Cox Enterprises Inc., has been one of the city's fastest-growing companies since it was founded in 1997. The firm signed a letter of intent for between 350,000 and 400,000 square feet at 3003 Perimeter Center, essentially taking the entire 30-story office tower owned by GE Asset Management. READ MORE HERE

2008: Headquarters Lease May Kick Off Manhattan's Next Big Submarket

Ogilvy & Mather's 564,000-sf deal wasn't the largest lease done in Manhattan in 2008, but it's arguably a market changer. The advertising, public relations and marketing agency signed a contract to move its world headquarters to 636 11th Ave. on the Far West Side, becoming one of the first major tenants to take space in an area of the city primarily known for its industrial facilities.

The Hakimian Organization bought the 100-year-old former candy factory-turned-data center in 2005 with the intention of converting it to a 450-unit condominium. But as office availabilities in the city shrunk and Midtown rents moved up, Cushman & Wakefield approached the owners with a proposal to turn the facility into a corporate headquarters building. At the same time, CB Richard Ellis began helping Ogilvy & Mather find a 600,000-sf block of space. The WPP subsidiary's lease at Worldwide Plaza was set to expire in 2009, and the firm had spent several years looking at various options throughout the city, to no avail. After tours and negotiations, the firms struck a middle-of-the-night deal for a 20-year, $600-million lease that would move its 2,000-plus employees into the 11-story building a few blocks from its existing location. READ MORE HERE AND HERE

2007: Lured by Incentives Package, Westinghouse Stays Put in PA

To accommodate its rapid growth, Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC began to search for a new location for its world headquarters and global engineering center in 2005. Staubach Co. assisted Westinghouse in its site search, considering several alternatives. South Carolina—which dangled more than $70 million in tax incentives, $60 million more than what Westinghouse's home state of Pennsylvania was offering—came close to being selected, but in the end the firm decided to sign a deal for a build to suit in the Pittsburgh suburb of Cranberry.

Wells Real Estate Funds bought land from Mine Safety Appliances for the build-to-suit. Westinghouse signed on for about 850,000 sf in three buildings. The 16-year lease at the Cranberry Woods Office Park has a gross value of $400 million, according to the landlord's broker, Cushman & Wakefield. Staubach also structured the development and financing transaction for the facility. Trammell Crow Co. is charged with developing the structures at the park, which they have controlled for the past eight years.

The deal is being reported as the largest office lease of the year, and the largest in Pennsylvania's history. READ MORE HERE AND HERE

2006: Moody's Inks 600,000-SF 7 WTC Term Sheet

Silverstein Properties secured an anchor tenant for 7 World Trade Center. Moody's Investor Services has signed a term sheet for approximately 600,000 sf on 15 floors.

Earlier in the year, Beijing Vantone Real Estate Co. agreed to the basic terms of a lease for at least 200,000 sf to establish a China Center at the 1.7-million-sf site. American Express spin off Ameriprise Financial signed a 10-year lease for approximately 20,000 sf, which represents half of the 39th floor. The New York Academy of Sciences was first tenant to take space when it signed a 15-year, 40,000-sf lease for the entire 40th floor.

READ MORE HERE

2005: Law Firm Takes 650,000 SF At 300 N. LaSalle

Kirkland & Ellis leased 650,000 square feet at 300 N. LaSalle. The law firm signed a 15-year lease for its space in Hines' new 1.3-million-square-foot office tower in the Central Loop. This represents a downsize from the 700,000 square feet it previously occupied at the Aon Center, 200 E. Randolph Dr.

The relocation came as the result of an in-depth planning process, which began in 2001 to analyze and increase space efficiency and possible future expansion. Kirkland was represented by the Staubach Group on the deal. The firm will occupy 26 floors of the Gold LEED pre-certified 60-story building being developed at an estimated cost of more than $400 million. READ MORE HERE

2004: DC's Biggest Lease Ever—Covering 620,000 SF—Is Signed and Sealed

Waterview—the one-million-sf mixed-use project developed in the popular Rosslyn submarket by a joint venture involving JBG Cos., Trizec Properties Inc. and CIM Group—secures a single tenant for the property, but that single tenant is all it will need. The Corporate Executive Board Co. has signed on to occupy the entire 620,000-sf office portion of the development under a 20-year lease. The agreement marked the largest leasing deal of all time in the Greater Washington, DC area. A provider of business research and analysis, CEB will relocate its growing staff of 1,200 employees that are currently housed in four different locations throughout Washington, DC. Trizec Properties and Jones Lang LaSalle represented the owners in the deal, while CEB relied on Cushman and Wakefield. For CEB, the impending relocation not only allowed it to consolidate its existing offices, but it also provides the company with the opportunity to accommodate an expected growth spurt—the company was planning 2,500 new hires. READ MORE HERE

2003: Teachers' Retirement System Takes 157,000 SF at 55 Water

Insiders called it a "massive coincidence," and both words are apt for the 157,000-sf lease deal that Teachers Retirement System has signed at 55 Water St. here. The coincidence came in that the deal was signed just hours after Health Insurance Plan of New York signed for its 500,000-sf deal in the north tower of the same building. The aggregate value of the 15-year deal is just under $100 million. Insignia/ESG repesented the building's owner, Retirement Systems of Alabama. CB Richard Ellis served as the owner's consultant. Peter Hennessey of Staubach spoke for Teachers. Insignia/ESG and CBRE played the same roles in both deals. GVA Williams represented HIP.

READ MORE HERE AND HERE

2002: Transportation Dept. to Get $40M Home at Southeast Federal Center

The US Department of Transportation got a new home at the Southeast Federal Center after the General Services Administration awarded JBG/SEFC Ventures LLC a lease to build the $400-million, 1.35-million-sf complex. The Transportation Department's new home will sit on 11 acres of the 55-acre Southeast Federal Center. The developer's lease is for a 15-year term and carries an option to buy.

READ MORE HERE

EDITOR'S NOTE: 2001 was a year of the office lease, not only in volume but also in terms of the size of the mega-deals that were struck. As large as the deals below were, however, they paled in comparison to the monstrous ground lease Silverstein Properties inked for the original World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. The terms were finalized mere weeks before the terrorist attacks of 9/11, which irrevocably changed the world—let alone the commercial real estate industry—as we know it.

2001: SEC Leases 650,000 SF for New HQ Near Union Station

The Securities and Exchange Commission will move into a new office building to be constructed near Union Station. The SEC signed a 14-year lease for 650,000 sf, for which it will pay a flat rate in the "low $40 range" per sf. The new building at the corner of F and 2nd streets, NE, will be adjacent to Union Station and the Thurgood Marshall Building. Called "Station Place," it will be developed and constructed by Louis Dreyfus Properties LLC of New York. The New York architecture firm of Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates designed the building. The SEC, which was represented by Spaulding & Slye Colliers, chose this site out of six finalists because of its proximity to transportation. READ MORE HERE

2001: Boeing Picks Chicago

Whether it was luck of geography, $63 million in city and state incentives or a convincing argument that it really is "Paris on the Prairie," the city won a three-way sweepstakes for Boeing Corp.'s headquarters, beating out Dallas/Fort Worth and Denver. The aircraft maker has agreed to a long-term lease with Lend Lease Real Estate Investments Inc. for 270,000 sf on the top 12 floors at 100 N. Riverside Dr., a 36-story office tower in the West Loop that was the former headquarters for Morton International. Lend Lease was represented by the John Buck Co., leasing manager for the building, while Cushman Realty Corp. represented Boeing.

READ MORE HERE

2001: Lefrak Signs PaineWebber to 1.2M-SF Waterfront Lease

It was quite a run for the Lefrak Organization, successively signing J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and others to major leases at its 600-acre Newport mixed-use community on the Jersey City waterfront. Now, the New York-based developer has put the final piece in place for the five-million-sf first phase of Newport's office segment with the signing of PaineWebber as the sole tenant of a new 1.2 million-sf, 32-story tower. Newport Center VII, as the building is known, will break ground within the next month. Completion is slated for late next year, but don't expect PaineWebber to move many people across the river from New York. Cushman & Wakefield brokered the transaction on behalf of the tenant. READ MORE HERE

2001: Chase Takes CSFB's 1.3M-SF Space at 277 Park Ave., CSFB Expands at 1 Madison Ave.

When Credit Suisse First Boston's plans to spend $11.5 billion to purchase Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette hit the news in August, questions about the future of the real estate holdings of the two immediately sprang to the foreground in the industry. The same happened shortly thereafter in September when the news broke that Chase Manhattan and J.P. Morgan would merge. Now, the two seemingly unrelated deals have touched as Chase signs for 1.4 million sf made available by CSFB.

CSFB has entered into an assignment of lease with Chase for the space at 277 Park Ave. CSFB Realty Corp. represented the firm, while Insignia/ESG represented Chase in the transaction. Insignia/ESG also represented Chase in its signing of a 20-year lease that summer for the entire Newport Office Center V and VI in Jersey City. Chase also signed a 20-year lease for 580,160 sf at 245 Park Ave. READ MORE HERE AND HERE

2001: MetLife Will Retain Manhattan HQ, Expands to LIC

Insignia/ESG negotiated a 404,000-sf lease with Brause Realty Inc. at Bridge Plaza in Long Island City, Queens for MetLife, where 962 employees from the Manhattan headquarters will be relocated. Under the terms of an agreement reached between MetLife and the city, the company will relocate the 962 employees to six-story structure at 27-01 Bridge Plaza, but continue to house its corporate headquarters and approximately 500 employees at 1 Madison Ave. It will also add 550 jobs over the next 20 years and in return receive $26.3 million (net present value) in discretionary tax and energy incentives over the same period. The state will also add $4.3 million in grants and loans for worker training and renovation costs. MetLife currently occupies the entire 1.4-miliion-sf building on Madison Avenue. It recently leased approximately 1.2 million sf to Credit Suisse First Boston. READ MORE HERE

2001: Silverstein JV Takes Possession of WTC

To mark the privatization of the World Trade Center, the city's richest real estate deal ever, according to the WTC, government officials and real estate executives spoke to a gathering in the center's sprawling plaza to extol the benefits of the transaction. The twin towers, as well as two nine-story office buildings and approximately 425,000 sf of retail space, have been net leased for 99 years to Silverstein Properties and Westfield America for $3.2 billion.

In spring 2000, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey began seeking bids for a company to lease, manage and operate the complex, which signed its first tenant 30 years ago. A number of firms including Vornado Realty Trust, Brookfield Properties and Boston Properties took an interest. At one point, Vornado appeared to be the successful bidder but at the end of the day Silverstein and Westfield rose to the top of the bidding stack.

JP/Morgan Chase, Cushman & Wakefield and Milstein Realty Advisors acted as advisors to the Port Authority, which will retain oversight of the complex's building, fire, environmental and health codes and the integrity of its physical plant. READ MORE HERE

2000: USPTO Consolidates to Carlyle Site

The US General Services Administration signed a lease with LCOR Alexandria LLC for the US Patent and Trademark Office space consolidation project. LCOR will develop about two million square feet of office and related lease space for USPTO on the Carlyle site in Alexandria, VA. At the time USPTO occupied rented space in 18 separate office buildings spanning a 1.1-mile area in Arlington, VA. The 20-year lease was valued at $1.2 billion. The five-building complex was completed within four years. READ MORE HERE