Bank Renews Lease at 437 Madison Ave.

NEW YORK CITY-Nordea Bank Finland PLC, an international bank headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, has renewed its 35,000-sf lease on the 21st and 22nd floors of 437 Madison Ave. The William Kaufman Organization Ltd. is the landlord of the 40-story, class A 778,509-sf building.

Studley’s David Dusek, senior managing director, represented Nordea in its eight-year lease renewal. The tenant has been headquartered in the building since 1979 and according to Dusek, Nordea has been “experiencing consistent growth,” and “was keen to remain in its current building in order to take advantage of landlord concessions to upgrade and re-configure its facility. As part of the negotiations, we agreed upon a work letter to renovate and upgrade the entire premises.”

Built in 1967, the building’s other tenants include Nixon Peabody, CNBC, Kekst & Co., Omnicom Group, DDB Worldwide Communications Group Inc. and Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The building, Dusek tells GlobeSt.com, is approximately 99% leased and is attractive to tenants due to the location, however he could not provide asking or taking rent, or aggregate lease value. According to Cushman & Wakefield market research, average asking rent for the area for class A properties as of the end of Q2 were $120.95 per sf.

Michael Lenchner, vice president and director of leasing for Sage Realty Corp., represented the landlord. The landlord was unable to be reached for comment by deadline to provide details. Sage Realty Corp. did not respond to queries by deadline. Attorneys in the transaction were: Art Rosner Esq. and Bill Lang Esq. of Nixon Peabody for the landlord, while Peter Figdor Esq. of Salans acted on behalf of Nordea.