Citi Extends 2.6 MSF Lease Agreement at TriBeca Towers in NYC

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

An affiliate of Citigroup Inc. has signed an extension for its triple-net leases at 388 and 390 Greenwich St. in Manhattan’s TriBeCa neighborhood, SL Green Realty Corp. and partner Ivanhoé Cambridge, the buildings’ owners, announced late last week. The leases cover the entirety of both buildings, which total 2.6 million square feet and are the headquarters for Citigroup’s Global Wealth Management and Global Trading divisions.

The leases now extend through Dec. 31, 2035, and the agreement includes an option for Citi to buy the towers between Dec. 1, 2017, and Dec. 31, 2020.

The lease’s dollar value was not disclosed, and a Citi spokesperson could not be reached as of press time.

At 39 stories, 388 Greenwich is by far the larger of the two buildings (390 Greenwich is eight stories) and was originally known as the Shearson Lehman Plaza and later the Travelers Building, after the insurance company that occupied it for years.

Citi then owned the two towers until December 2007, when it sold them in a $1.58 billion, 15-year sale-leaseback to SL Green and Canadian investor SITQ, which merged with Ivanhoé Cambridge in 2011.

Citi’s plan, according to a press report at the time, was to gradually exit the buildings over the lease period, though obviously this strategy changed.

The Wall Street Journal reported in late October that negotiations were then underway for the lease extension, but noted that Citi was also considering other options, including either a new office tower planned by Related Cos. on the far west side of Manhattan or Two World Trade Center, which is on hold till a major lease can be nailed down.

Robert Alexander, Michael Geoghegan, Andrew Sussman and Michael Wellen of CBRE represented Citibank; SL Green acted on behalf of the landlord partnership.

SL Green CEO Marc Holliday noted in a press release that SL Green is Citi’s largest landlord.