Global law firm Withers is moving to Manhattan’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza, highlighting how demand for legal services is helping fuel the office market’s rebound in New York and across the country.
Withers, founded in 1896 in London, signed a lease spanning 33,000 square feet on the 54th floor of the 70-story art deco icon built in 1933, landlord Tishman Speyer said Tuesday in a statement. Withers is moving from 430 Park Ave., a Tishman Speyer spokesperson told CoStar News, declining to specify Withers' rent terms in its new digs.
Withers' footprint at its current home since 2016 spans 24,540 square feet, CoStar data shows.
David Guin, managing director of Withers' New York office, said the firm had conducted an "extensive search for suitable new office facilities" before settling on 30 Rock. At the property, totaling about 2.5 million square feet, Withers will count among major neighbors NBCUniversal and Deloitte as well as fellow law firms such as Haynes & Boone and Sheppard Mullin, CoStar data shows.
30 Rock is in the Plaza District, the largest U.S. office cluster, where the availability rate of 11.8% is “notably below the metro average of 13.3%,” according to a CoStar analysis. Rents, at about $100 per square foot, also are the priciest in New York, the study found.
The Plaza District, which also includes the Park Avenue corridor, played a part in pushing Manhattan’s top-dollar rent deals last year to new highs, according to a recent JLL analysis.
Still, the building is set to lose a major tenant as Deloitte — with more than 462,000 square feet, according to CoStar data — signed a lease of more than 800,000 square feet to relocate across town to 70 Hudson Yards, which is under construction. The Tishman Speyer spokesperson said 30 Rock is 100% leased, and Deloitte's term isn't up until 2028.
Withers’ planned relocation comes as Manhattan inked its best office leasing volume since at least 2019, driven in part by demand from law firms. Global law firm Goodwin, for instance, last year signed one of Manhattan’s largest office leases in a planned relocation of its New York space to what it described as a “dynamic, mixed-used neighborhood.”
Nationwide, law firms’ share of U.S. office leasing volume has continued to grow as “law firms continue to commit to office space as essential to their culture and performance,” according to a Savills study.
For the record
Withers was represented by Cynthia Wasserberger, Michael Berg, Bobby Blair and Sofia Bruno of JLL. Tishman Speyer was represented in house by Blythe Kinsler and Kate Walker.