Brookfield Office Properties Inc. has acquired a Lower Manhattan office building for $200 million.
The property, One North End Ave., is the headquarters of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). It is adjacent to the 8-million-square-foot Brookfield Place complex. Brookfield has plans to integrate its new property into the former World Financial Center complex.
“One North End Avenue has always unofficially been a part of Brookfield Place,” says Dennis Friedrich, CEO of Brookfield Office Properties. “(It) is a highly specified office/trading building featuring a great waterfront location, and which further benefits from the accelerating vitality in the area, including the introduction of new restaurants from celebrated chefs and luxury brand retail.”
The 15-storey office building is connected to the new downtown east-west transit concourse, which links to the PATH and 11 subway lines. The NY Waterway ferry terminal and the River Esplanade are also nearby.
The building, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, was developed in 1996. Its distinguishing features include two open 35,000-square-foot trading floors with 37-foot-high ceilings.
NYMEX has entered into a 24-month lease for about 449,000 square feet of office space, after which it will consolidate into 222,000 square feet on floors two to eight, for an additional 13 years. Following the consolidation, Brookfield will lease the 322,000 square feet of office space at the top of the building.
