Financial firm signs deal to pay $150 psf for digs at 9 W 57th.

Venture capital firm Highland Capital Partners' has made an entry into Manhattan fitting for a highflying financial firm.

The company, based out of Dallas, closed a deal last week for 12,000 s/f on the 38th floor at 9 West 57th Street, space for which it paid $150 per s/f. According to sources, it is among the highest priced leases per s/ f completed so far this year.

While there are spaces within 9 West 57th Street where the asking rents are said to be greater, according to a source familiar with the building's rent roll, none yet have attracted deals. 9 West 57th Street, along with the GM Building and a handful of other buildings, is considered among a short-list of the city's most exclusive addresses and consequently routinely garners some of midtown's highest rents.

The product of a recently terminated lease with its previous tenant, an investment advisory firm called Clinton Group, the space never actually was put on the market.

Clinton Group consolidated its operations into other existing offices that the company has in the building, leaving 12,000 s/fs fully furnished and built out and available immediately for Highland's impending occupancy.

CB Richard Ellis vice president Benjamin Friedland and senior associate Sacha Zarba represented Highland in the deal.

CBRE senior vice president Peter Turchin represented the landlord, Sheldon Solow. None could be reached for comment.