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Facebook May Lease 700,000 Square Feet At Farley Post Office Building
By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 6, 2019
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By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 6, 2019
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Three weeks ago, Facebook announced it was taking 1.5 million square feet of office space in three Hudson Yards buildings. Now it looks like the social media giant will add more trophy office space to its New York City real estate portfolio: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Facebook is in talks for 700,000 square feet at the Farley Building, across from Penn Station.
The NY Post had actually first noted Facebook's interest in the old post office building—which will also house the new Moynihan Station—in September, saying that the company was interested in "all 740,000 square feet of office space being built in the former James A. Farley Post Office — located across from Madison Square Garden, sources said... No deal has been signed, but talks are advanced enough that the US arm of Japanese advertising firm Dentsu has been derailed from its play to take over the fourth floor, sources with knowledge of the talks told The Post."
The building is being developed by Vonardo, and the office space covers the second, third, fourth, and fifth floors. Here's how they are describing the building:
The Farley Building, the former 1912 James A. Farley Post Office, is undergoing a complete transformation to become New York City's best-in-class creative office hub. This adaptive reuse of an iconic civic building designed by McKim, Mead and White, famed architects of original Penn Station, will feature 740,000 square feet of office space, 120,000 square feet of curated retail and new majestic train hall. This horizontal campus is located in the center of New York's Midtown West submarket on top of the busiest transportation hub in the country with nearly every NYC subway line, Amtrak, LIRR and NJ Transit directly accessible from the building.
Delivering in 2020, the Farley Building will feature large, open floorplates to foster collaboration and innovation, slab heights of over 17 feet, 40' x 32' column spacing, multiple office lobbies, and additional private entries and brand experiences for our tenants. The fifth floor will contain nearly 70,000 square feet of outdoor landscaped park space to insire the building's tenants to interact with nature and to encourage movement, wellness and fitness. In addition, a 6,000 square foot, column-free glass pavilion is being constructed on the fifth floor which will contain 25 foot ceilings and glass walls that open to the building's outdoor green space.
According to the Wall Street Journal, "If the Farley deal is completed, the new leases would create space for more than 14,000 Facebook employees, according to rough estimates by real-estate consultants." The WSJ, whose editorial board blasted "unions and politicians" who opposed the Amazon deal, noted, "Many of the new tech deals"—like Google's future Hudson Square space—"have been reached without significant incentives or extra tax breaks from the city. At Hudson Yards, Facebook isn’t getting the same financial inducements, like additional tax credits, that were included in the package offered to Amazon."
In its abandoned Long Island City HQ2 plan, Amazon had promised to create at least 25,000 jobs in New York City—at a cost of up to $3 billion in tax breaks from the city and state.
Without confirming or denying that a deal was in the works for the Farley building, Facebook said in a statement, "It’s hard to predict future growth, but we believe New York is a vibrant market with a tremendous pool of talent."
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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