Park Avenue Tower, 65 E. 55th St./ photo credit: Real Estate Arts
NEW YORK CITY—CLEAR will be moving into 24,640 square feet of office space at Park Avenue Tower, signing a lease with EQ Office, the office portfolio company owned by Blackstone's real estate funds. The biometrics company that's use for security processing at airports, stadiums and other venues that attract massive numbers of people has agreed to a 10-year lease. Asking rents were not provided.
CLEAR is relocating from 650 Fifth Ave. to 65 E. 55th St. between Park and Madison avenues. The company will occupy the entire 17th floor, starting at the end of 2018. It will expand into a portion of the 16th floor in early 2019. Both spaces will be built out to accommodate the tenant requirements.
As part of its efforts to attract tenants, EQ Office recently completed $40 million in renovations at its 36-story, 620,000 square-foot skyscraper, which was originally constructed in 1986. The upgrades included modernizing the lobby and mechanical systems. The owner landlord also created a 20,000 square-foot tenant amenity space, contracting with FitLore and Convene to provide a fitness facility, and business space and services.
“When we embarked on the capital improvement program at Park Avenue Tower, we set out to create a culturally modern setting that would complement the building's high ceilings, large windows, and efficient floor plates, while providing services that employees demand,” says Simon Wasserberger, SVP and portfolio director at EQ Office.
In addition to Wasserberger, EQ Office was represented in-house by Scott Silverstein, and Newmark Knight Frank's Brian Waterman, Ben Shapiro, Brent Ozarowski and Lance Korman. CLEAR was represented by Jared Horowitz, also with Newmark Knight Frank.
Since its repositioning, EQ Office has rented 231,000 square feet in new leases.
The CLEAR transaction follows EQ Office's recent deal with BTIG. In mid-August, the global brokerage and fund services firm signed a 15-year, 65,365 square-foot lease, for the entire second, third, and fourth floors. Although prices also were not disclosed in that deal, The Real Deal had reported rents in the building ranged from $110 to $200 per square foot. Commercial Observer stated in December 2017 asking rents at Park Avenue Tower were around $135 to $140 per square foot.
Other tenants include the National Bank of Canada, Oak Hill Capital Management, TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P., Eminence Capital, LLC, Stephens Inc., Avista Holdings, LLC, Cyrus Capital Partners, East Rock Capital Management and ICM Partners.
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Betsy Kim
Betsy Kim was the bureau chief, East Coast, and New York City reporter for Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. As a lawyer and journalist, Betsy has worked as the director of editorial and content for LexisNexis Lawyers.com, a TV/multi-media journalist for NBC and CBS affiliated TV stations in the Midwest, and an associate producer at Court TV.
