NYU Langone is in late-stage talks with Boston Properties to lease all 200,000 square feet of the renovated atrium building at the base of 601 Lexington Avenue, formerly known as the Citigroup Center.
The academic medical center, which in recent years has been expanding its Midtown East campus, has a deal pending to lease all of the office space at the newly rebranded 159 East 53rd Street, sources told The Real Deal.
A spokesperson for NYU Langone declined to comment, and representative for Boston Properties couldn’t be reached.
Asking rents at the property are $90 per square foot.
The six-story building, tucked away under the stilts that lift the 1.4 million-square-foot 601 Lexington nine stories above the street, is the smallest component of the former Citigroup complex, which also includes the 1.7 million-square-foot 399 Park Avenue.
Most of the annex’s office space had been leased by Citibank, which left thousands of square feet vacant at the center’s three buildings when it relocated to a pair of buildings it now owns in Tribeca.
Below the office space, the atrium includes retail on the ground and lower levels known as the Atrium Shops and Cafes, which Boston Properties is renovating in order to modernize the properties and attract new tenants.
The landlord launched a $150 million renovation in 2016 to the plaza outside 601 Lexington Avenue and the annex – which it rebranded with the 159 East 53rd address – and plans to bring a trendy food hall to the retail portion.
Elsewhere at the complex, the law firm Kirkland and Ellis late last year took an additional 120,000 square feet at 601 Lexington, bringing its footprint in the building to roughly 520,000 square feet.
NYU Langone, meanwhile, has been expanding its Midtown East campus that hugs the FDR Drive between 34th and 30th Streets, both within and beyond its borders.
The hospital is finishing up construction on the 15-story, 365,000-square-foot NYU Langone Science Building at 435 East 30th Street, which is near the 830,000-square-foot Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Pavilion expansion at Tisch Hospital.
Further uptown, NYU Langone in 2016 signed a 30-year, triple-net lease to take all 390,000-square-feet at Columbia Property Trust’s 222 East 41st Street.