PWC shopping for 200,000 s/f.

PricewaterhouseCoopers is in talks to take a cluster of floors in the base of 100 Park Avenue in what would be the company's first significant expansion since it moved into 800,000 s/f at 300 Madison Avenue in 2003.

A spokesman for the firm, which is the largest accounting firm in the city, confirmed that the company is looking for extra offices in which to grow but wouldn't say what buildings it was considering, how much space it was looking for or if a deal was close.

"All of our practice areas are showing robust growth and accordingly we are looking to the future," the spokesman, Steve Silver, said.

But sources say that PricewaterhouseCoopers is already in the process of negotiating for a largely contiguous block of floors totaling about 200,000 s/f at 100 Park Avenue.

Steve Durels, the director of leasing at SL Green, the real estate investment trust that owns 100 Park Avenue, wouldn't confirm that a deal was being done with PricewaterhouseCoopers, but said that the building's agents, a leasing team from Cushman & Wakefield, were in discussions for a potentially large lease.

Durels said that a collection of floors in 100 Park Avenue are set to come available within the next year that will free up about 365,000 s/f of space. In anticipation of the vacancy, SL Green has for months been in the process of a $70 million renovation of the roughly 900,000 s/f building in order to improve its marketability and boost rents. The work will significantly overhaul the building's existing condition and includes the installation of a new facade as well as a new lobby, elevators and HVAC system.

Freeing up a portion of the building's lower stories is the 2008 expiration of a lease with the tobacco holding company, Altria, who took a number of floors at 100 Park Avenue as additional space in close proximity to its corporate headquarters at 120 Park Avenue.

As reported on Real Estate Weekly's website rew-online.com last Friday, Altria has made plans to exit the city and has hired CB Richard Ellis to sell 120 Park Avenue.

Altria has given back much of its space to SL Green and currently subleases the remainder, floors 9, 10, 17 and 24. In the next months, Durels says that floors 11 and 12 will also be coming available that, together with 9 and 10, will form a contiguous block of roughly 165,000 s/f. Boosting the attractiveness of the block is the fact that it will also eventually offer contiguous expansion room on floors 7 and 8, which total 90,000 s/f and will be available in 2012.

For a tenant like PricewaterhouseCoopers who is using the building to meet its growing need for additional offices, such expansion space likely is an important consideration.

Another 90,000 s/f is available in the base on floors 3 and 6.

The improvements that SL Green is making to the building have already reflected in its rents. Durels said that a deal was recently signed for the 35th and 24th floors with General American Investors Co. and CresaPartners respectively. The roughly 10,000 s/f spaces went for about $100 per s/f for the tower floor and in the $90s for the 24th floor, well above what the building had been getting even in the throes of midtown's rental rises in recent months.

A deal at 100 Park Avenue would bring PricewaterhouseCoopers back to a twin location mode of operation in Manhattan.

The company had moved into 300 Madison Avenue in order to consolidate the headquarters of the two firms, Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand, that merged in 1998 to create it. Price Waterhouse had been at 1177 Avenue of the Americas and Coopers & Lybrand had been at 1301 Avenue of the Americas. "We straddled two locations for a few years," Silver said.

But with no room left to grow at 300 Madison Avenue, the firm has been forced to look beyond its sparkling new headquarters, which was developed and is owned by Brookfield Properties. In recent months it had been spotted shopping around the office market, including at nearby 340 Madison Avenue.