Vornado signs 105,000 s/f lease at One Penn Plaza.

Eager to consolidate its offices since merging in July, BMG Columbia House signed a lease last week for 105,000 s/f at One Penn Plaza, the 2.4 million s/f crown jewel of Vornado's considerable holdings in the Penn District.

Newmark's Michael Ippolito represented the tenant in the transaction.

Comprising part of the fourth and the entire fifth floor of the building, the deal is the largest in what has been a busy year of activity at the 55-story One Penn Plaza.

A Vornado insider estimated that roughly 500,000 s/f of space has been leased in 2005, most of which was dealt piecemeal in over 50 transactions.

While the majority of deals were 10,000 s/f and under, there were other notable large deals besides the BMG Columbia House lease, including United Healthcare's 70,000 s/f taking earlier in the year.

The source attributed at least some of the building's attention to an area-wide resurgence in the Penn District's office market, along with the announcement of local infrastructural improvements, most notably the conversion of the nearby Farley Post Office into an additional wing of Penn Station.

BMG currently has offices at the Rockefeller Group owned 1221 Avenue of the Americas while Columbia House has space in 28 East 28th Street.

Just after its merger, BMG Columbia House was in talks for a deal at the 2.9 million s/f 111 Eighth Avenue, owned by Jamestown and Taconic Investment Partners.

That plan was nixed, however, when in mid-September heavyweight Internet browser Google polished off all the building's vacancy in a 270,000 s/f deal, one of the year's largest in Midtown South.