{"id":274803,"date":"2025-10-03T14:51:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T14:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/274803\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T14:51:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T14:51:42","slug":"versant-lease-at-former-ny-times-building-occupies-164k-sf-commercial-observer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/274803\/","title":{"rendered":"Versant Lease at Former NY Times Building Occupies 164K SF \u2013 Commercial Observer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Versant<\/a><\/b>, Comcast<\/a><\/b>\u2019s corporate cable channel spinoff, signed a lease over the summer for a temporary home across 164,545 square feet at the former New York Times<\/a><\/b> building at 229 West 43rd Street<\/b>, according to Savills<\/a>\u2019 <\/b>third-quarter Manhattan office leasing report.<\/p>\n

The move, which occurred in August, marked a major milestone for MSNBC<\/b>, which moved out of its headquarters and studios at NBC<\/b>\u2019s iconic 30 Rockefeller Plaza<\/b>. Adweek cited a memo<\/a> to the company\u2019s staff from Jeff Mayzurk<\/b>, Versant\u2019s president of operations and technology, saying that the new location, known internally at Versant as \u201csummer camp,\u201d was chosen \u201cdue to its studio and production space and its central location.\u201d Despite this, Versant considers the move temporary, and is reportedly still searching for a permanent location.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: Workday Fills 51K-SF NoVA Office Previously Occupied by Meta<\/a><\/p>\n

The length of the lease and the asking rent were unclear, as was the reason the new location will only be temporary. When the Martha Graham Dance Company<\/b> moved to neighboring 1501 Broadway<\/b> in May of this year, Crain\u2019s New York Business reported that<\/a> asking rents in that building started at $58 per square foot.<\/p>\n

It is unclear who the brokers were for the Versant lease, although JLL<\/a><\/b> is the building\u2019s leasing team, according to the building\u2019s website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The owner of the building\u2019s office portion is Columbia Property Trust<\/a><\/b>. The building\u2019s first four floors and two below-grade ones are retail-oriented and separately owned, having been purchased in August 2025 by Forum at Times Square<\/a><\/b> for just $28 million, according to Crain\u2019s New York Business<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ironically, an adviser on that deal, Jay Miller<\/b> of BayBridge Real Estate Capital<\/a><\/b>, told Crain\u2019s at the time that the location\u2019s appeal was enhanced by the possibility of a proposed casino right across the street. Those hopes were dashed two weeks ago<\/a>, as CO previously reported.<\/p>\n

The building \u2013 which occupies 682,843 square feet, according to Property Shark \u2013 served as the home of The New York Times from 1913 to 2007. It received a landmark designation in 2001, and underwent an extensive renovation around 2011.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CO reported in 2022<\/a> that BuzzFeed<\/a><\/b>, seeking to cut its office footprint, relocated to 107,000 square feet in the building that it planned to share with its new parent company, Complex Networks<\/a><\/b>. Both companies have since relocated again, with Buzzfeed shrinking its footprint further<\/a> to 42,210 square feet at 50 West 23rd Street<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Columbia Property Trust, Versant Media and JLL did not immediately respond to requests for information.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Larry Getlen can be reached at lgetlen@commercialobserver.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Versant, Comcast\u2019s corporate cable channel spinoff, signed a lease over the summer for a temporary home across 164,545…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":274804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[142233,142234,56901,142235,5229,142236,142237,7745,108164,27771,142238,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,49428,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-274803","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-1501-broadway","9":"tag-229-west-43rd-street","10":"tag-30-rockefeller-plaza","11":"tag-50-west-23rd-street","12":"tag-america","13":"tag-jay-miller","14":"tag-jeff-mayzurk","15":"tag-leases","16":"tag-martha-graham-dance-company","17":"tag-msnbc","18":"tag-nbc-channel","19":"tag-new-york","20":"tag-new-york-city","21":"tag-newyork","22":"tag-newyorkcity","23":"tag-ny","24":"tag-nyc","25":"tag-office-leases","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-united-states-of-america","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115310801405808942","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}