Roku Inks Major NYC Lease

Times Square. Image by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen via Unsplash

RXR Realty has signed Roku to a 240,000-square-foot lease at 5 Times Square that will see the streaming giant relocate and significantly expand its New York City presence.

The firm will occupy eight full floors at the top of the 1 million-square-foot tower in the heart of Manhattan’s Times Square, RXR announced on Monday. Roku will leave its current 70,000-square-foot space at 114 W. 41st St. and move in the fourth quarter of this year.

Roku’s new space was previously occupied by global accounting firm Ernst & Young, which relocated its headquarters to the Manhattan West office complex last year. Once moved in, Roku’s name will have prominent billing on the building’s 22-story tall vertical signage, which previously featured the Ernst & Young name.

The move comes several months after Roku signed a 10-year lease for 72,000 square feet at the 1.2 million-square-foot Colorado Center office campus in Santa Monica, Calif.

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In prepared remarks, RXR Executive Vice President & Managing Director of New York City leasing Bill Elder said the company’s plan ever since acquiring the property had been to attract tech and new media companies.

RXR paid $800 million for a 50 percent stake in the tower in 2016. The office building was purchased two years prior by a group led by David Werner for $1.5 billion. Currently in the midst of a multimillion-dollar renovation campaign, the building will soon get a new lobby that connects directly to the Times Square subway station and 48,000 square feet of tenant amenities curated by David Rockwell. The new amenity offerings will be tech- and wellness-centric and will include workspace lounges, podcast and recording rooms, a fitness center, lecture hall, and food and drink options.

A CBRE team of Dan Birney, Alexandra Budd, Bob Alexander, Ryan Alexander, Mike Affronti, Alex Benisatto, Taylor Callaghan and Nicole Marshall represented RXR in-house, while Sacha Zarba and Frederick Fackelmayer of CBRE represented Roku in the lease deal.

Nearby office tower 3 Times Square, also known as the Thomson Reuters Building, is also undergoing a multimillion-dollar transformation. Last April, The Rudin Family announced that the 950,000-square-foot building will be getting a new façade, amenities and technology, among other features.