KPF

Steve Cuozzo reported earlier this week that although asking rents are holding (for the time being) at $100 per square foot, tenants continue to tour SJP Properties’ LEED Gold hopeful 11 Times Square at the corner of 42nd Street and 8th Avenue. According to Cuozzo, German bank WestLB considered space at the tower before deciding on LEED Gold-certified 7 World Trade Center at a decidedly cheaper rent (between $75 and $85 per square foot). Japanese bank Mizuho is currently looking for a block of 250,000 to 300,000 square feet with CB Richard Ellis, and Cuozzo reports that it has visited the building as well. The National Basketball Association and Newmark Knight Frank are also interested and, according to Cuozzo, went so far as to draw up architectural plans for space, where it would relocate from 645 Madison Avenue.

SL Green has started a $160 million capital improvement program at 1515 Broadway- home to MTV’s Times Square studios- which will upgrade the tower’s HVAC, lighting, and other building systems in pursuit a LEED-EB Silver rating from USGBC. Designed by architects Kohn Pedersen Fox, the renovation will also include the installation of a 42-foot high extension to the 54-story building’s street-level curtain wall, where pedestrians can peer into the MTV space and access the lobby of the Minskoff Theater. Steve Cuozzo quotes SL Green leasing chief Steve Durels as stating that the firm’s “goal is to give [the building] more street presence and more drama, especially as you look at its lower part.” SL Green purchased the 2 million-square foot tower back in 2002 for $480 million, and its green upgrades come in advance of the pending expiration of nearly 1 million square feet of the total 1.5 million in the building currently leased by Viacom.

Kohn Pederson Fox, architects of the future LEED Platinum Beer Belly Building headquarters of JPMorganChase at the World Trade Center site, as well as LEED Gold-certified Court Square Two in Long Island City, is moving its offices from 111 West 57th Street south to Tishman Speyer’s 11 West 42nd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues. The firm has inked a long-term deal for 65,000 square feet across the tower’s 8th, 9th, and 18th floors, where asking rents were in the neighborhood of $67 per square foot. The 32-story building, which was originally called the Salmon Tower, was built back in 1927 and originally designed by architects York & Sawyer.

As we wrote about back in September, Silverstein Properties’ three LEED Gold towers planned for the former World Trade Center site are on the verge of climbing out of Greenwich Street. Today, GlobeSt.com reported that the year-long excavation work for the foundations of Towers 3 and 4 are currently within a few weeks of being [...]

I briefly mentioned CitiGroup’s Court Square Two project in Queens’ Long Island City back in May (after its construction manager Turner was honored along with USGBC at Solar One’s Green Building Gala) but want to pass along more details about the 14-story, 528,000 square foot building designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox (with development manager Tishman [...]