Law Firm Relocates in Midtown Manhattan

March 9, 2021

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Jenner & Block LLP has signed a 15-year lease at the recently renovated 1155 Avenue of the Americas skyscraper, in contrast to New York City’s trend toward short-term agreements.

1155 Avenue of the Americas. Image via Google Street View

The Durst Organization has added another law firm to the tenant roster at 1155 Avenue of the Americas, its 790,000-square-foot office tower in Midtown Manhattan. The real estate company signed Jenner & Block LLP to a 15-year-lease lease of approximately 67,000 square feet at the 41-story high-rise.

Also known by the address of 1155 Sixth Ave., 1155 Avenue of the Americas made its debut in 1984, but the Emery Roth & Sons-designed building recently got a massive makeover, courtesy of a $130 million capital improvement program. The upgrades to the property, which also features roughly 2,300 square feet of ground-level retail space, run the gamut from enhanced floor-to-ceiling glass to new elevator cabs and destination dispatch controls to a new lobby. Earlier on, in 2016, the LEED v4 Silver-certified building made a splash in the world of sustainability when it became the first project in New York City to earn LEED v4 certification.

Jenner & Block will relocate from its current home at 919 Third Ave. to space on floors 29 through 32 at 1155 Avenue of the Americas. The firm relied on CBRE’s Lewis Miller, Jason Gorman and Zachary Weil for representation in the lease transaction, while Durst relied on the in-house representation of Tom Bow, Rocco Romeo, Tanya Grimaldo.

Legal haven

Jenner & Block’s new lease at 1155 Avenue of the Americas marks the fourth law firm to commit to the office tower within the last three years. Most recently, the New York Post reported in October 2020 that Freeborn & Peters had signed on for just over 16,500 square feet in the building. In 2018, Perkins Coie inked a 15-year lease for approximately 58,000 square feet.

Jenner & Block’s long-term lease transaction contradicts a trend among New York law firms seen since the beginning of the COVID-19 health crisis in the U.S. in 2020. “In New York City, the five largest law firm transactions signed after the start of the pandemic were for terms of five years or less,” according to a 2021 report by Newmark.