Deloitte’s planned move from Rockefeller Center to 70 Hudson Yards is a triumph for developer Related Companies and its longtime financial partner Oxford. But Tishman Speyer, which owns about two-thirds of 30 Rock, must replace it at a time when companies increasingly prefer newly-minted, triple A-rated digs to buildings that are nearly a century old.
Deloitte has about 430,000 square feet at landmarked 30 Rock — as much as the other largest office tenant, Lazard — as well as 98,000 square feet at 1221 Sixth Avenue. A source said the largest currently available space at 30 Rock is 33,000 square feet on the 54th floor, where the asking rent is $112 per square foot. (About one-third of 30 Rock is owned separately by Comcast for its NBC studios).
One commercial real estate source snarked, “It’s one of the city’s best-loved buildings and Tishman Speyer has worked magic with its retail and public areas, but 90-year-old office space is still 90-year-old office space.”
But CBRE global brokerage chief Stephen B. Siegel, who isn’t involved at 30 Rock, predicted that Tishman Speyer wouldn’t have to struggle. “Time is on their side,” he said. “They have four years to find new tenants and they put a lot of effort into the offices as well as into the Top of the Rock and the restaurants.”
In fact, Siegel said, the increasing scarcity of available, first-class space in Midtown will make it easier to lure tenants to 30 Rock, “rich in history, amenities and views.”
Deloitte will expand to 800,000 square feet at 70 Hudson Yards, a 717-foot-tall tower for which ground will be broken in June for completion in late 2028, The Wall Street Journal first reported.
Deloitte’s lease will leave Related with only around 350,000 square feet to fill at the new tower — which should be a snap in light of its success filling all the office buildings at its main Hudson Yards complex two blocks south.
One driver of Deloitte’s move, a source said, is to consolidate all its people, including from 1221 Sixth Ave., on contiguous floors — unlike at 30 Rock where its 14 floors take up three separate blocks.
Another factor in its decision is that Deloitte prizes sustainable design and health benefits for its employees — as at London’s environmentally advanced 1 New Street, where the firm moved a few years ago. The all-electric Hudson Yards tower, designed as the city’s first zero-carbon-emissions skyscraper, fits the bill.
Deloitte employees responded swiftly, but anonymously, to news of the relocation. One posted on Reddit, “It will be good to have a nicer office.” Another wrote that the move “can’t come soon enough. 30 Rock is iconic but makes for a pretty stuffy office.”
But another employee hated “getting dragged into Hudson Yards … there’s no food … what am I supposed to do for lunch? Eat a Chanel Bag” — clearly unaware that Hudson Yards has as many places to eat as Rockefeller Center.
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