Condé Nast looking to sublease a third of its WTC headquarters
Condé Nast revealed on Monday that consolidation plans underway will result in the publisher subleasing out more than a third of its headquarters at One World Trade Center.
The sublease of 350,000 of its 1 million square feet of office space will mean that the seven of the 23 floors in the 104 story tower now rented by Condé Nast will be up for grabs.
The price that Condé Nast paid for the space when it moved in back in 2014 couldn’t be learned, but as an early showcase tenant, the price is estimated to be in the $50-per-square-foot range.
Space at WTC is currently estimated to be going for around $75 a foot — which could mean nearly an extra $15 million a year for a company that is scrambling to close last year’s losses estimated at $100 million. Of course that annual savings will be dented by ongoing construction costs the first year.
The only offices not moving will be the floor where executives for Advance Publications, the parent of Conde, now reside on the 43rd floor. That’s the floor where Newhouse family members such as Steve Newhouse, head of AdvanceNet, sits.
Conde Nast CEO Bob Sauerberg will be moving from the 42nd floor along with the other Conde Nast top brass including chief revenue officer Pamela Drucker Mann.
Also moving: Radhika’s Jones’ Vanity Fair on 41, Pitchfork and consumer marketing on 40, David Remnick’s New Yorker on 38; lifestyle brands including Bon Appetit, the digital remnants of Self and Wired’s New York office on 36.
A spokeswoman said all the magazines will eventually be affected since space across the remaining 16 floors will be reconfigured with magazines sharing floors and the centralized copy editing and design teams on the same floors.
Architectural plans are still taking shape. For the floors that Conde is keeping, the plan is to renovate two floors at time. The whole process is expected to take 18 months but no start date has been set.
“Since we are living here and renovating at the same time, the lessees will move in once our new floors are completed,” said a spokeswoman. “They say the NYC real estate market takes at least 9 months, ergo the listing now.” Realtor JLL is handling the sublease listing.