Deal of the Year to C&W for 1301 Ave of Americas.

Cushman & Wakefield has won the Real Estate Board of New York's prestigious Robert T. Lawrence Deal of the Year Award for demonstrating ingenuity and professionalism in securing a world headquarters at 1301 Avenue of the Americas for the noted investment banking firm Wasserstein Perella & Co., Inc.

In executing the capture of the 180,000 square-foot, 16-year lease, top-tier Plaza District offices overlooking Central Park for Wasserstein Perella, Cushman & Wakefield worked with its longtime client to meet the challenge of securing offices at 1301 Avenue of the Americas, a building that was fully leased. A key to unlocking the complex, multi-tiered transactions required by Wasserstein Perella's needs was Cushman & Wakefield's ability to relocate Siemens Corporation to a strategically placed Midtown building, delivering on the client's desire for a prominent United States headquarters to showcase its technology capabilities.

Stuart I. Romanoff, an executive director of Cushman & Wakefield, led the leasing team representing Wasserstein Perella, which included Amy McBride and Robert Taylor of C&W. Peter Van Duyne, John Gray, John Moxley and Phil Amarante of Cushman & Wakefield represented Siemens.

"Cushman & Wakefield's outstanding client service in all aspects of this transaction led to the completion of a lease agreement in an ideal location which displayed true ingenuity and is worthy of this award," said Clay Kingsbery, CFO and managing director of Wasserstein Perella.

"Cushman & Wakefield and Siemens Real Estate developed creative solutions to accomplish the tremendous task of relocating the Siemens U.S. headquarters in a tight real estate market," said Gerhard Schulmeyer, president and CEO of Siemens Corporation. "Our vision for the Siemens New York office has been realized: to maximize communication through the use of state-of-the-art office technologies, and to increase employee collaboration in an open, bright space," he concluded, referring to Siemens' new offices at 153 East 53d Street, The Citicorp Center.

Cushman & Wakefield's efforts to pursue the Avenue of the Americas site were undertaken despite the challenges its brokers, faced in securing a premier location for Wasserstein Perella, which required a Plaza District property. Located on the westerly blockfront between 52nd and 53rd Streets, 1301 Avenue of the Americas, known familiarly as the Credit Lyonnais building, is a 45-story building comprised of 1,765,494 square feet.

In pursuing 1301 Avenue of the Americas for Wasserstein Perella, Cushman & Wakefield initially found that no available space existed in the building, and alternative space was virtually non-existent due to a tight and rising market.

The deal was pieced together between eight parties, involving 750,000 square feet of leases, subleases and option space, which impacted 21 floors in the building and necessitated simultaneous global negotiations with principals in Switzerland, Germany, Japan and the U.S.