By Hadassa Kalatizadeh
Apple Inc. has signed a lease for office space at 11 Penn Plaza. As reported by the NY Post, the 220,000 square foot space leased has long served as home for Macy’s corporate offices. The art-deco building is situated on entire eastern block-front in Midtown Manhattan’s Seventh Avenue between West 31st and 32nd streets, near Madison Square Garden. Apple will move into the middle of the 1.15-million-square-foot building—floors 11 through 14. It has options to lease additional space on the 9th floor. The lease is being closed directly with the building owner, Vornado Realty Trust, for some of the space being leased by Macy’s.
Back in January, the Post had reported that the Vornado 1923-era building has 638,921 square feet available from the fourth through 14th floors available for lease as a sublease from Macy’s. Macy’s is moving its headquarters to Long Island City. Macy’s still holds a lease for the remaining 300,000 square feet of space, which it is also trying to sublease, with a price tag of roughly $65 per foot. As part of its reorganization, in January, Macy’s had signed a lease to take the entire 22 floors of the east tower, dubbed One Jackson, of the two-building office project at 28-07 Jackson Avenue in Long Island City, along with the third and fourth base floors there.
As per the Post, Apple has signed only a five-year deal with an option to extend at 11 Penn Plaza. Macy’s original lease extends till 2035, and sources say the department store will still be responsible for the entire duration of that lease. Apple is reportedly still searching for a more permanent location to call home, preferring one with big floorplates. “Although it has a beautiful modern headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., and had toured the new buildings around Hudson Yards, Apple fell in love with 11 Penn,” a source told the Post.
Apple currently fills 52,000 square feet, for its marketing division and commercial software applications unit, at 100-104 Fifth Ave. in the Flatiron District. That space is said to be not nearly large enough to meet its needs. The IPhone maker has been looking for office space for more than a year. Apple Inc. reportedly was eyeing space at the nearby Farley Building, on top of the Post Office. Vornado also owns that historic building at 390 Ninth Ave, and has completed extensive renovations there. Apple first wanted to lease a few hundred thousand feet there, but it lost out to Facebook who agreed to take all 740,000 square feet. Facebook is still negotiating the lease in that deal.
None of the parties named agreed to comment.
