Tishman Speyer Completes Leasing at 1.2 MSF NYC Office Project

The JACX

Tishman Speyer just brought The JACX, its creative office project in Long Island City, Queens, to full occupancy. New lease agreements with Macy’s Inc. and New York-Presbyterian totaling 328,000 square feet complete the tenant roster at the 1.2 million-square-foot property months in advance of its completion.

“Our ability to pre-lease most of The JACX prior to construction and all of the space prior to completion firmly demonstrates Long Island City’s viability as an office hub and a magnet for today’s creative workforce,” said Rob Speyer, president & CEO of Tishman Speyer, in a prepared statement.

Designed by MdeAS Architects, the JACX will consist of One and Three Jackson, twin 26-story high-rises linked by a four-story podium encompassing 50,000 square feet of street-level retail space. The Class A property, designed to meet requirements for LEED Silver certification, will feature more than an acre of landscaped outdoor terraces, a nearly 400-space parking garage and a 175-space bike parking area with showers.

After having signed on for 567,000 square feet of space at The JACX, Macy’s inked a new 20-year lease expanding its occupancy to a total of 867,000 square feet. Macy’s will take 22 tower floors at One Jackson while sister department store Bloomingdale’s will occupy 11 floors at Three Jackson. Additionally, Macy’s will take 180,000 square feet of retail space, securing the entire third and fourth base floors of the podium.

New York-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine will be neighbors with Macy’s at One Jackson, having inked a 15-year lease for 28,000 square feet on the second floor of the property’s podium. The healthcare entity will establish a multi-specialty primary care practice in the space.

Macy’s and New York-Presbyterian will join WeWork at The JACX; the coworking office space company staked an early claim to 215,000 square feet of office space at Three Jackson in 2015.

Commercial real estate services firm CBRE represented Macy’s in its lease transaction, while New York-Presbyterian and Tishman Speyer relied on in-house representation.

LIC EMERGING

“Tishman Speyer made its first commitment to Long Island City back in 2003 because we recognized it as an authentic urban environment that possessed all of the ingredients for long-term success,” said Speyer.

Market fundamentals support his assertion. In 2018, Long Island City recorded positive net absorption, a decrease in availability and an increase in the overall asking rental rate, according to a fourth quarter 2018 report by CBRE. And no one could have foreseen Amazon’s decision to open one half of its HQ2 second headquarters in the city, which will only bolster the area with demand from ancillary businesses. 

Tishman Speyer, which is developing the JACX in partnership with global investor Qatari Diar Real Estate Co., expects to complete The JACX in summer 2019. The project will mark the single largest addition to Long Island City’s stable of office properties since the debut of the Citicorp Building in 1990.