The New York City Human Resources Administration has inked a 20-year lease for 400,000 square feet at a 10-story building at 470 Vanderbilt Avenue in the Fort Greene area of Brooklyn, the New York Times reported, in what is, so far, the biggest real estate deal in Brooklyn in 2011 and brings the building to 85 percent occupancy.
“The building is huge — an entire city block — and it has basically sat vacant and derelict for years,” said Steven Hurwitz, the vice president of acquisitions and developments at GFI Development, the company that owns the ground lease. “This is a major turnaround for the building and the surrounding neighborhood.”
It was not immediately clear how this lease fits in with the administration’s previously reported plans to move into 4 World Trade Center. It was recently reported that the HRA would take 582,000 square feet on floors 22 to 35 in the 2.3 million-square-foot tower, making it the second largest government tenant there. A spokesperson for the HRA was not immediately available to return a call from The Real Deal.
HRA will be vacating 271,000 square feet at 330 West 34th Street and 37,000 square feet at 2 Washington Street in Manhattan, and 187,000 square feet at 210 Livingston Street in Brooklyn, the Times said.
Peter Hennessy, president of the New York tri-state region for Cassidy Turley, represented the tenant in the deal and Gary Kamenetsky, a first vice president at CB Richard Ellis, represented the landlord.
HRA is expected to move to its new premises by next winter. [NYT]