Orrick Gambles and Wins Cheap Office Space in Black Rock
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has paid less than $80 a square foot to rent office space for its 200 or so New York lawyers in the CBS building known as Black Rock.
Just two years ago the law firm was looking at space that cost $120 to $140 a square foot, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. Now it has managed to lease 220,000 square feet in the new building for a monthly rent in the low- to mid- $70-a-square-foot range. “What a difference two years and a massive global recession make,” the story says.
Another plus: CBS is paying $150 a square foot to renovate the space, using money paid by UBS AG to get out of its lease, according to the report.
Orrick was considering a rental at the Citigroup Center last fall, but after the failure of Lehman Brothers the firm’s leaders decided to wait and see whether rents would drop, New York managing partner Peter Bicks told the newspaper.
“We began to see very favorable concessions that indicated to us that it was the time, as they say at the blackjack table, to stick and let the dealer turn down another card,” he said.
