Global banking giant, Credit Suisse is looking for a new office space in Manhattan, New York, to move its headquarters.
Currently, Credit Suisse's head office is located at 11 Madison Avenue Building, Manhattan. The bank leases around 3 million worth of commercial space in Manhattan. According to the Wall Street Journal, the firm has approached a set of real estate investors seeking proposals for leasing or building a new place to house the bank's headquarters.
The move comes as Credit Suisse is trying to downsize its offices and will be vacating the leased office in the building. The bank expects to move into a much compact and smaller place once the lease expires in 2017, reports The Real deal.
In the last few months of 2012, owners of 11 Madison Avenue, Sapir Organization and CIM Group, had listed the building asking for $1.5 billion. Though the building had got great bids, they decided to take it off the market.
"Through the course of the bid we showed that it was a very likely scenario for Credit Suisse to renew. Ownership started to realize that they didn't want to leave that money on the table," Darcy Stacom, the building's sales broker told Crain's New York.
The owners are now planning to renew the lease with Credit Suisse. The bank occupies around 85 percent of the building. If the bank vacates, the company would have to find new tenants to fill up almost half the building.
As Credit Suisse plans on moving into a smaller office, it also announced that it will be laying off around 126 jobs in Manhattan. In 2012, the bank had decided to cut around 3,500 jobs in its investment banking sector throughout its branches. The company expects that its measures will bear fruit in the forthcoming quarter results.
While lower Manhattan has been a popular business center, Madison Avenue is popular for being home to advertising firms. However, the area is slowly gaining popularity among tech and banking companies as well.
