Global investment firm Carlyle Group has more than doubled its New York footprint, pushing its Manhattan presence well beyond the size of its Washington, D.C., headquarters.
Carlyle signed a new 10-year lease for 150,036 square feet on the entire 23rd through 26th floors at 245 Park Ave., owned by Japan’s Mori Trust and Manhattan’s largest office landlord, SL Green Realty, according to a person familiar with the situation. The asking rent was $175 per square foot, CoStar data shows, as top-dollar leases in Manhattan reached record highs last year.
Separately, Carlyle inked a 52,000-plus-square-foot-lease at the Irvine Co.-owned 200 Park Ave. — known as the MetLife Building — directly above Grand Central Terminal, according to the Commercial Observer, which earlier reported Carlyle’s leases at the two properties on a high-profile stretch that houses headquarters of such corporate giants as JPMorgan Chase and Blackstone.
Carlyle’s lease is on the fourth floor of the MetLife Building, which had an asking rent of $100 per square foot, CoStar data shows.
Those two new signings added to an existing 194,702 square feet CoStar data shows Carlyle has at One Vanderbilt, SL Green’s trophy tower that’s connected to Grand Central. Carlyle is also keeping its space there, the person familiar with the situation said.
Carlyle is the largest tenant at One Vanderbilt., CoStar data shows.
In total, Carlyle has nearly 400,000 square feet of top-tier space in Manhattan, about double its roughly 208,000 square feet at 1001 Pennsylvania Ave. in D.C., according to CoStar.
Carlyle and Irvine Co. didn’t immediately respond to separate CoStar News requests for comment. SL Green declined to comment.
As of Dec. 31, Carlyle had $477 billion of assets under management, the firm said in February, adding it has more than 2,500 employees in 27 offices across four continents.
Founded in 1987 in D.C., Carlyle began as a boutique investment firm formed by five partners with backgrounds spanning finance, corporate management and government, including David Rubenstein, a former Carter administration official. The firm’s location in the nation’s capital shaped its early focus, particularly in defense- and government-related industries, before it expanded into private equity, real assets and credit strategies on a global scale.
Expanding in New York represents a homecoming of sorts for the company, as it’s named after the city’s Carlyle Hotel, where its founders first mapped out the business, according to media reports.
The deal at 245 Park was announced by SL Green last week without identifying Carlyle as the tenant. SL Green said this week it’s on track to have its strongest first quarter in history, thanks to this transaction and other leases.