For the second time in 2018, a major law firm has signed a lease to take more than 100K SF in Midtown Manhattan's biggest construction project.

McDermott Will & Emery will take 106K SF at One Vanderbilt, the 1,401-foot-tall office tower SL Green is developing alongside partners Hines and the National Pension Service of Korea, SL Green announced Tuesday.

The lease brings the building to 31% leased, following bigger deals with TD Bank, which kick-started construction on the tower, and Greenberg Traurig, which signed for 133K SF earlier this year. SL Green expects the 1.7M SF tower to be 37% leased by the end of the year.

“The momentum we’re seeing at One Vanderbilt, two years ahead of opening, reaffirms East Midtown’s position as the premier business destination in New York,” SL Green President Andrew Mathias said. "We’re delighted to welcome McDermott Will & Emery into the SL Green portfolio and help advance their strategic goals at One Vanderbilt.”

In addition to TD Bank, which will also occupy a ground-floor retail space, and Greenberg Traurig, McDermott Will & Emery will join DZ Bank and chef Daniel Boulud as the pre-leased tenants at One Vanderbilt. The tower is more than 10 stories off the ground now after the developers built $200M of infrastructure improvements to Grand Central Terminal, which will connect to the completed office building.

Chicago-based McDermott Will & Emery will move to One Vanderbilt from its current New York office at 340 Madison Ave. and a satellite location elsewhere in the city, but despite growing by 25% over the past year, it will keep roughly the same footprint in its new lease, with a more efficient layout, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Newmark Knight Frank's Moshe Sukenik and Noel Flagg represented McDermott Will & Emery, and CBRE's Robert Alexander, Sarah Pontius, Ryan Alexander and Emily Jones brokered the deal for SL Green and its partners.