Holwell Shuster & Goldberg Subleases 59,750 SF from Simpson Thacher
13 June 2017
Savills Studley, the leading commercial real estate firm specializing in tenant representation, announced that it has completed a transaction for law firm Holwell Shuster & Goldberg LLP (HSG), which will sublease 59,750 square feet from AmLaw 100 firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP (Simpson Thacher) at 425 Lexington Avenue for sixteen years.
HSG is a litigation boutique specializing in complex commercial cases, with a particular focus on sophisticated financial, securities, antitrust, intellectual property and bankruptcy-related disputes. HSG was founded in 2012 by The Hon. Richard J. Holwell, who served as a highly respected federal judge in the Southern District of New York, and his former partners and colleagues from White & Case: Michael S. Shuster, who was global head of commercial litigation at White & Case, Daniel P. Goldberg and Dorit Ungar Black. HSG will relocate from 750 Seventh Avenue at the end of the year, nearly doubling its footprint from 30,000 square feet in just two years. HSG will occupy the 12th, 13th and 14th floors of 425 Lexington.
HSG initiated its search for new larger offices in the fourth quarter of 2016, two years prior to its current sublease expiration date. HSG’s brokers, Savills Studley’s L. Craig Lemle and Nick Zarnin, recognized early on that the best solution for HSG would be to take advantage of the tremendous amount of consolidation occurring within the law firm community. At the beginning of the space discovery process, Lemle and Zarnin found out that Simpson Thacher would make a few practice floors available for long-term sublease. The next day, the HSG partners viewed the available floors and shortly thereafter, Lemle and Zarnin secured a favorable rent with a substantial concession package in an off-market transaction.
“HSG wanted built, fully furnished law firm space in Midtown for its rapidly growing practice,” said Zarnin. “By starting the search early, we were able to find a space that checked all the boxes and will allow HSG to grow into a premier office building at an attractive rent.”
“While the majority of the legal industry is downsizing, HSG stands as a rare example of growth,” said Lemle. “Many law firms are consolidating their real estate footprints to smaller, more efficient layouts in an effort to reduce costs, and this particular consolidation presented an incredible opportunity for HSG.”
425 Lexington Avenue is a 31-story, 750,000-square-foot trophy office building prominently located on Lexington Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets directly across from Grand Central Terminal. The building is 100% leased by Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Simpson Thacher, which both originally signed their leases when the building was developed in 1987. The sublease space from Simpson Thacher is the only space to become available in the building since the property was built in 1987.
