Midtown Manhattan to Be Home of News Corp & Fox Corp for Next Two Decades as Blockbuster Deal is Inked
Edited by: TJVNews.com
It appears that for the next two decades at the very least the home of News Corp and Fox Corp will be at 1211 Sixth Avenue in midtown Manhattan, the New York Post reported.
In a major boost to the Midtown office market, Fox and News Corp signed separate leases to extend their headquarters commitments at 1211 Sixth Ave. through 2042, the Post reported. The leases total nearly 1.2 million square feet in the 44-story, 2 million square-foot tower between West 47th and 48th streets, the report indicated.
For edification purposes, the New York Post and Fox Corp are owned by News Corp. The two are separate companies under the aegis of media mogul, Rupert Murdoch. The Post reported that currently under consideration is a proposal to merge them again into a single business entity.
The mega deal that has been hammered out with the Canadian pension fund known as Ivanhoe Cambridge who owns the building at 1211 Sixth in midtown also includes plans to significantly improve the property, the Post reported. Changes overseen by asset manager Hines are to include a renovated main lobby, upgrades to the outdoor plaza, and creation of a new 47th Street lobby and work is to start in late 2023, the report said.
Although the combined lease was signed in 2022, it has not been announced publicly until now, the Post reported. The lease ranked as the largest in Manhattan last year and the largest in Manhattan in three years.
The deal is expected to be a huge boon for Sixth Avenue as the Post reported that it has lost fewer tenants to the far West Side and downtown than have Third and Park Avenues. Other office towers that were constructed in the 1940s and 50s and are located in the midtown area in the West 40s and 50s have also seen vast improvements. The report indicated that such buildings include Rockefeller Group’s former Time + Life Building at 1271 Sixth.
Despite the fact that future trends point to employees working from home that initially emerged at the beginning of the Covid pandemic in early 2020, the deal that was signed with 1211 Sixth may come to defy these forecasts, the Post reported, as the deal could signify a real future for media offices and the employees working there.
News Corp is the parent of Dow Jones, which publishes the Wall Street Journal, HarperCollins Publishers and news organizations in the UK and Australia, according to the Post report. Fox Corp. owns Fox News and the Fox broadcast network, along with local TV stations and the Tubi streaming service, the report stated.
CBRE represented the tenants. Cushman & Wakefield and Hines acted for the ownership.