Lawyers ink midtown deal for 250,000 s/f.

Law firm, Ropes & Gray, extended the streak of big deals that have been done in Midtown in recent weeks, inking a deal last week for 250,000 s/f at 1211 Avenue of the Americas.

Formerly leased by J.P. Morgan Chase, the space will allow Ropes & Gray to consolidate two offices it currently has at 630 Fifth Avenue and 1251 Avenue of the America. Newmark repped Ropes & Gray in the deal and will take on the assignment of subleasing out the firm's former spaces. Although brokers say that the amount of big deals so far this year pales in comparison the number that were done in 2004, the succession of sizeable space commitments in Midtown may not be over with rumors that insurance giant, St. Paul Travelers, may soon snatch the roughly 200.000 s/f of vacant space at 1166 Avenue of the Americas.

While law firms usually share the spotlight with financial firms as the leasing powerhouses of Manhattan, it has been the latter that has grabbed the most headlines in recent weeks--and space. In September, Citigroup signed a deal first at 787 Seventh Avenue for 250K s/f and then at SL Green owned 485 Lexington for nearly twice that amount.

Then in early October, American Express followed suit with a 200K s/ f expansion at 3 World Financial Center, a building in which it already occupies over 1 million s/f. And so the list of high profile big block spaces keeps shrinking in Midtown with a shortlist consisting only of 200K s/f at 1740 Broadway, 200K s/f at 340 Madison, 300K s/f left at 485 Lexington, and 575K s/f at 522 Fifth Avenue. The latter, which constitutes the entire building, has generated so much interest, Cushman & Wakefield broker Mitch Konskar, who is handling the assignment, said it would be filled within 6-12 months. "We're generating a lot of interest, it won't be long," Konskar said. Brokers don't expect a scarcity of big chunks of space with both new and existing vacant buildings poised to enter the market. "You have the Bank of America Tower coming up in a few years and we'll have the 1095 Avenue of the Americas and SL Green's Grand Central Square," said Dean Shapiro executive managing director at CBRE. " There won't be a shortage but we are seeing healthy uptake."