December 23, 2013
St. John’s leases 71,000 square-feet of space at 51 Astor Place, a new, Edward J. Minskoff, 12-story, 400,000-square-foot office building.
On December 19, Willkie client St. John’s University announced that the University has leased 71,000 square-feet of space at 51 Astor Place to house its Manhattan campus. The new, Edward J. Minskoff, 12-story, 400,000-square-foot office building occupies the block between Third and Fourth Avenues in the East Village.
Situated in an area that is home to more than 50,000 college students, the facility will be the site of the School of Risk Management, a key division of The Peter J. Tobin College of Business at St. John's and a global leader in risk and insurance education and training. The school includes the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Library, which houses the world's largest collection of risk and insurance literature, policies, and related documents. It serves as a center for study and research for students of risk management, insurance, and actuarial science from around the world. The facility also will house The Language Connection, St. John's intensive English language institute, along with other academic continuing professional education programs.
St. John's plans to open 51 Astor Place for the Fall 2014 semester. The site will replace the original Manhattan campus at 101 Murray Street in Tribeca, which the University sold for $223 million in July 2013. Willkie advised on that transaction as well.
Founded by the Vincentian Fathers in 1870 as a one-building commuter school in Brooklyn, St. John's is a Catholic university with a diverse population of students who come from 48 states and 114 countries. The University offers more than 100 associate, bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in the arts, business, education, law, pharmacy and the natural and applied sciences.
The current deal was handled by partner Thomas Henry, counsel Daniel Backer and associates Justin Elliott, Jennifer Schanes and Elizabeth Case.
