When an office tower’s landlord has to move its own headquarters to make room for another tenant there, it likely means the building’s hot.
It’s happening at Marx Realty’s 10 Grand Central, the 450,000 square-foot Art Deco property previously known as 708 Third Ave. Marx CEO Craig Deitelzweig had the idea in 2018 to ditch the then-unfashionable avenue moniker as part of a $45 million repositioning that included moving the entrance to East 44th St.
It’s been a leasing juggernaut ever since. Some 27,000 square feet of new deals brought its offices to more than 95% spoken for.
Marx will expand from its current 9,000 square feet on the seventh floor to 11,000 square feet on the 11th floor. The move will make more room for 1-800-Flowers, which will move into Marx’s old space from a smaller sublease on the 18th floor.
“I never saw before in my 24-year career so many tenants expanding or wanting to,” Deitelzweig told us.
Alternative asset management platform Hayfin Capital Management will relocate from the GM Building to a similar-sized, 7,000 square-foot space on 10 Grand Central’s 16th floor — which became available when Teladoc expanded to the 17th floor.
He said companies hesitated to grow during and soon after the pandemic “thinking hybrid work would last forever. Now, people are in their offices four or five days a week.”
He said Marx has raised rents at 10 GCT four times in the past 12 months “from $82 per square foot to $130,” and soon to $230 on two formerly mechanical floors at the top being converted to offices with “all-glass” surroundings.
A new draw is The Meeting Galleries, an 11,000 square-foot amenities complex of four different spaces to accommodate corporate meetings and events, including a “Town Hall” lounge. Seats, murals and artworks were chosen to suggest a luxury train of the 1930s.
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