GFI Group is doubling down on 55 Water Street, a boost for the beleaguered Downtown Manhattan submarket.
The brokerage services firm renewed its 64,000-square-foot lease for the entire 10th floor of the 53-story Financial District tower and added another 65,000 square feet on the 11th floor, according to CBRE. The move will allow GFI to consolidate operations from from 199 Water Street, where it has maintained a separate footprint.
The firm, which was acquired in 2015 by Howard Lutnick’s GFI Group, has been a tenant at the 4 million-square-foot Class A building since 2007. The asking rent was $59 per square foot, per the New York Post, which first reported the deal.
CBRE’s Howard Fiddle, Bradley Gerla, Evan Haskell and William Hooks represented the landlord, the Retirement Systems of Alabama. Newmark’s Jared Horowitz and Hal Stein represented GFI.
The building has been home to several big lease deals this year. In April, telecommunications service provider MetTel expanded to 69,000 square feet. Two months later, engineering consultancy firm Jaros, Baum & Bolles signed on for 68,000 square feet. In October, transportation technology firm Verra Mobility signed a 57,000-square-foot sublease from EmblemHealth.
Downtown is slowly clawing its way back from the pandemic, well behind the surging Midtown and Midtown South markets. This year’s leasing activity clocked 3.7 million square feet through October, up 89 percent year-over-year, per CBRE. Net absorption was 254,000 sq. ft. in October, bringing the year-to-date total to 1.45 million square feet.
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