LaBranche Builds Out 48,000 SF on Wall St.

NEW YORK CITY-Trader LaBranche & Co., a specialist firm on the New York Stock Exchange, will shift its operations from 120 Broadway and 55 Broadway to three floors of 33 Whitehall St. The lease is for 10 years.

The move will initially keep 500 employees in the Financial District, but the company plans to expand and take additional floors in the next six to 12 months. Aragon Construction was selected to manage the construction of LaBranche’s new location at Broad Financial Center in Lower Manhattan. The moves adds to a resurging downtown real estate market that has seen some long-time Midtown tenants look south.

Aragon Construction, working together with owner’s representative Michael Tennyson of Global Facilities Management, and principal Michel-Claude Fiechter of TPG Architecture, will turn the entire seventh, eighth and ninth floors, a total of 48,000 sf, into trading floors with voice and data capabilities, new mechanical and electric infrastructure, raised flooring and a 2,500-sf IT room. Published online information has the asking price of the space at about $40 per sf.

According to Tennyson, LaBranche is putting upwards of $10 million into the space, and adds, “It’s really a breakaway from their more corporate look to a more efficient, fresh look.” The new trading facilities will be finished in early November. Calls were not returned to GlobeSt.com for comment.