By Daniel Geiger
Forex Capital Markets, a currency brokerage, has signed a deal for the entire 50th floor of 55 Water Street.
The company will be subleasing the space from the commercial printing company RR Donnelley, which inherited the floor last year when it purchased Bowne & Company, a marketing and business communications firm, which it has relocated into its existing offices in the city. Donnelley has space both in midtown and Lower Manhattan, at 99 Park Avenue and 75 Park Place.
The 50th floor of 55 Water is a little over 60,000 s/f, and market experts familiar with the sublease offering estimate that rents in the deal with Forex were likely in the $30s per s/f.
At nearly 4 million s/f, 55 Water Street is one of the largest office towers in the city. Base floors in the property are bigger than 120,000 s/f and even spaces at the top of the 54-story tower are over 60,000 s/f, an unusually roomy floorplate so high in the sky.
Forex, a foreign exchange trading firm, had inked a short term, one and a half year renewal deal last year at 32 Old Slip, where it had been subleasing about 40,000 s/f of space from Daiwa Securities. At the time, proposed regulations in the foreign exchange trading business that would limit the amount of leverage these firms could take on had clouded the outlook for the industry and Forex was wary to commit to a long term lease.
David Offman, a broker with the real estate services company the Lawrence Group, represented Forex in the deal. Offman couldn’t be reached for comment by press time.
