The office tower at 1271 Ave. of the Americas was completed as part of the modern expansion of Rockefeller Center.
NEW YORK CITY—Major League Baseball has signed a new lease for approximately 400,000-square-feet at 1271 Ave. of the Americas. The iconic 48-story office tower was completed as part of the modern expansion of Rockefeller Center to the west side of Sixth Avenue.
MLB will occupy six floors of office space in the 2.1-million-square-foot building, which is located on the west side of Sixth Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets in the center of midtown. MLB and MLB Advanced Media plan to consolidate employees at 1271 from separate locations in Midtown and Downtown and are scheduled to take control of the space in 2018—with occupancy expected for 2019.
As part of its agreement, MLB will have the right to use the building's street-level plaza for public events, as well as exclusive use of the eighth-floor outdoor terrace, which overlooks Sixth Avenue with expansive views of Central Park to the north and Lower Manhattan to the south. The office space was previously occupied by Time Inc., which had been the building's anchor tenant for more than five decades before the publisher's relocation in 2015.
MLB was represented by a CBRE team including Scott Gottlieb, Ken Meyerson, Chris Corrinet, Brendan Herlihy and Daniel Wilpon. Building ownership was represented by a CBRE team including Mary Ann Tighe, Howard Fiddle, John Maher, Dave Caperna, Evan Haskell and Sarah Pontius, in coordination with an in-house Rockefeller Group leasing team led by Ed Guiltinan and Jennifer Stein. On the legal front, the landlord was represented by Steven Klein and Gary Litke of Gibson Dunn, while the tenant was represented by Chris Smith and Peter Strauss of Shearman & Sterling.
Earlier this year, the Rockefeller Group started a $600 million redevelopment of 1271 A of A. Major elements of the project include replacement of the building's glass curtain wall, allowing approximately 60% more light into the interior space and enhancing the views, as well as restoration of the building's landmarked lobby. The building was completed in 1959.
Neighborhood amenities within a five-block radius of the Midtown tower include 10 parks, 10 museums, 65 hotels, 115 theaters and more than 400 restaurants and 2,000 retail stores. In-building amenities include several restaurants as well as direct access to the B, D, F and M subway lines and the shops at Rockefeller Center.
“We are very pleased to welcome Major League Baseball to Rockefeller Center,” says Dan Rashin, co-president and CEO of the Rockefeller Group. “Major League Baseball is world renowned, representing the best-of-the-best in global sports, media, entertainment, and technology services. And 1271 is a dynamic building undergoing a significant transformation for the future – the two of them together make a world-class combination.”
Baseball commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr. adds, “We are excited about the opportunity to create a singular headquarters environment that can best accommodate the workplace needs of our employees as we continue to build and enhance our organization for the future. The building's central location, access to transportation and existing amenities made this the right move for MLB.”
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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.
