1 WTC Signs Full-Floor Lease with xAd as Latest Tenant

By Gail Kalinoski, Contributing Editor

Dipanshu Sharma,xAD

Mobile advertising company xAD has signed a 10-year lease for 43,849 square feet at One World Trade Center, one week after New York City’s newest skyscraper added a gaming company to its growing TAMI roster.

The company, currently located at 401 Park Ave. S., will be taking the entire 60^th floor, one floor above High 5 Games, another company in the burgeoning technology, advertising, media and information sector that is leasing space at One World Trade Center. High 5 Games, a content solutions company that serves gaming markets, announced Nov. 13 that it was taking the 58^th and 59^th floors, or 87,663 square feet.

The 102-story skyscraper is now 62.8 percent occupied and is at 72 percent of its projected stabilized net operating income, according to The Durst Organization, which is handling operations, management and leasing at the tower developed by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The newest tenant, xAD, will move all its employees to One World Trade Center next summer. The firm, which creates location-based mobile advertising technology, has 80 employees in its current location. It plans on sub-letting its office at 401 Park Ave. S., which can accommodate as many as 140 employees, a company spokesperson told Commercial Property Executive.

Empire State Development, New York State’s chief economic development agency, is offering xAD $3.4 million in Excelsior Jobs Program Tax Credits, which are tied to the creation and retention of 350 jobs and the retention of its current staff.

“As a company that focuses on location, our company headquarters is especially important to xAD,” Dipanshu ‘D’ Sharma, CEO, said in a news release. “xAd has doubled in size over the past two years and will more than double yet again in 2015. With our rapid expansion, we need a headquarters that allows us to sustain our momentum. Our move to One World Trade Center will raise xAD’s profile as an emerging leader at the intersection of New York City’s media, advertising and technology community.”

Stephen McCarthy, CFO of xAD, noted that One World Trade Center, the 3.1 million-square-foot tower that opened for business earlier this month, is already considered an iconic building.

“Being at One World Trade Center puts xAd in good company, and gives us the opportunity to be part of Lower Manhattan’s rapidly developing digital center.”

The company, which has offices in California, Illinois, London, China and India, had considered moving to New Jersey.

“But with Lower Manhattan’s increasing concentration of both retailers and marketing firms, they concluded that this would be the ideal location for a growing mobile advertising company,” said Cushman & Wakefield’s Jon Mayeske, who represented xAD in the transaction with Jamie Katcher.

Ownership was represented by Eric Engelhardt, vice president and director of leasing at One World Trade Center for The Durst Organization; Tara Stacom, executive vice chairman at Cushman & Wakefield, who led a team including Alan Stein, James Searl and Justin Royce, along with Jodi Pulice of JRT Realty.

Since the anchor tenant, publisher Conde Nast, moved into the building in early November, The Durst Organization has announced several new leases, including C12 Management and Incandescent Technologies, which have taken build-to-suit space on the 46^th floor. Other tenants include Servcorp, Cushman & Wakefield, KiDS Creative, China Center of New York L.L.C. and the U.S. General Service Administration.