SL Green Sues One Vanderbilt Tenant for $16M in Back Rent

SL Green Realty has accused Tennor Holding B.V. of pocketing $15.5 million in unpaid rent at its 73-story skyscraper in Manhattan’s Midtown.

The borough’s largest office landlord filed a lawsuit against its tenant to recoup the alleged millions in lost rent at One Vanderbilt, the trophy building at 1 Vanderbilt Avenue, Bisnow reported.

The Berlin-based global investment holding firm has been a tenant in the fully-leased office tower since 2022, according to the complaint.

In January of that year, Tennor signed a 10-year lease for a full-floor, or 25,000 square feet, with plans to set up shop in June 2023.

At the same time, Tennor also signed a temporary lease for 7,000 square feet on the 54th floor, which ran from January 2022 through mid-June the following year, according to the publication.

But seven months later, in September 2022, the landlord claims Tennor defaulted on the rent for the temporary office space. SL Green and Teutonic reached a settlement over the temporary workplace that allowed Tennor to stay, then cut a deal for two extension agreements through July 31 of last year.

Then Tennor defaulted on its rent for both offices — and hasn’t paid a nickel in rent since August 2023, according to the lawsuit.

In January of last year, SL Green terminated Tennor’s lease. The landlord alleges that its former tenant now owes $13.8 million, plus $1.7 million in additional rent. SL Green and Tennor didn’t respond to requests for comment from Bisnow.

The 1,401-foot-tall One Vanderbilt building, completed in 2020 at a cost of $3.3 billion, is 100 percent leased and considered the gold standard for new office development in New York.

Last fall, SL Green sold a piece of One Vanderbilt in a deal that values the trophy Midtown office tower at $4.7 billion. The REIT sold an 11 percent stake in the 1.7 million-square-foot skyscraper to Japan’s Mori Building Company for an undisclosed price.

The skyscraper now commands some of the highest asking rents in the city, at $264 per square foot last fall. In April 2022, a Canadian company leased its 73rd and highest office floor, which sought $322 per square foot, likely a per-foot record for New York.

— Dana Bartholomew