Moving from the Grand Central district to lower Manhattan, Holwell Shuster & Goldberg, which was launched last February by Richard Holwell when he left the Southern District bench (NYLJ, Feb. 8, 2012), has relocated to the 39th floor of 125 Broad St.
Offices of Holwell Shuster & Goldberg NYLJ/Rick Kopstein
The 15-attorney litigation boutique has a three-year sublease for 36,681 square feet with the law firm Sedgwick LLP at the 40-story, 1.2-million-square-foot Broad Street building. Since Holwell Shuster's launch, it had been a subtenant at 335 Madison Ave., where it subleased about 3,600 square feet.
"We could not be more pleased with our inaugural year," said Daniel Goldberg, a founding partner of Holwell Shuster. "Now, 10 short months later, we've more than tripled our [staff], we have taken a full floor in a fantastic building and are primed to grow."
David Rubin, a partner at Eiseman Assor Bell & Peskoe, along with associate Sarah Regan, represented Holwell Shuster.
Paul Kawakami, a partner in Sedgwick's real estate and finance group in San Francisco, internally represented the firm.
Sedgwick, a tenant of Sullivan & Cromwell, has leased space at Two World Financial Center. Sedgwick declined to comment on the sublease or the status of its move (NYLJ, Sept. 12, 2012).
The asking rate for class-A office space along the southern tip of downtown Manhattan is about $51 per square foot, according to Studley's January report. Sublease rates can range from $10 to $20 per square foot below a building's asking rate.
Holwell Shuster "explored many other options" throughout Manhattan, Goldberg said, but subleasing at 125 Broad St. "made sense" and the space was "built out" to meet a law firm's needs.
"Though Sandy certainly was an inconvenience, and its effects clearly continue to be felt downtown, it caused a delay [in moving] of only a few weeks," he said.
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