Gary Barnett has landed a law firm to take the majority of the office space at his upcoming, Ikea-anchored Fifth Avenue development.
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Law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is close to signing a 700K SF lease at Extell Development’s 570 Fifth Ave. tower, Commercial Observer reports, citing unnamed sources.
The firm currently has its offices at 425 Lexington Ave., but it’s unclear if it will keep its space inside the Vanbarton Group’s 750K SF building.
Extell didn't immediately respond to Bisnow's request for comment. The tower is set to occupy the full block between West 46th and West 47th streets, where New York YIMBY reported excavation began in February.
The project is being built on an assemblage that took Barnett a decade to put together. He snagged the assemblage’s final parcel in March for $175M.
“We paid a stupid price but it gives us the whole block, which is amazing,” Barnett told the New York Post at the time. “It’s the largest footprint available in Midtown and maybe anywhere.”
The developer plans to build a 33-story, 1.1M SF tower at 570 Fifth at a cost of more than $1B. Simpson Thacher is the first office tenant to commit to the skyscraper — expected to deliver by the end of 2028 — which will also house Manhattan’s first full-sized Ikea in an 80K SF space on the building's lower level that Ikea's parent company will own.
Ikea has agreed to invest $292M in the tower's construction, according to Tel Aviv Stock Exchange filings first reported by Bisnow. It is also one of nine Extell developments that landed a combined $1.2B preferred equity investment from an undisclosed hedge fund.
The money is set to go toward Extell's redevelopment of the former Walt Disney Co. campus between West 66th and West 67th streets into a 1.8M SF mixed-use residential project, the now-shuttered Wellington Hotel at 871 Seventh Ave., as well as “The Torch” at 740 Eighth Ave. where Extell is proposing a 875K SF development that would include an 825-key hotel, retail, an observation deck and a 260-foot drop tower ride.
Simpson Thacher's deal would be one of the largest in Manhattan this year, and the second to kick off a new tower following Deloitte's 807K SF prelease at 70 Hudson Yards with Related and Oxford Properties. NYU's 1.1M SF master lease of Vornado's 770 Broadway is still the clubhouse leader for the largest 2025 deal.
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