On a Tuesday in late April, Cleary Gottlieb’s real estate committee signed a 20-year lease renewal for 475,000 square feet at One Liberty Plaza. The law firm will occupy the top 10 floors of the 53-story, 2.3 million-square-foot tower. Brookfield Properties, the landlord, represented internally by Mikael Nahmias and Dan Roberts, closed the deal without a public marketing process.
Cleary Gottlieb has been at One Liberty since 1999. The firm’s current lease, signed in 2006 for 15 years, was set to expire in 2021. This renewal extends the relationship through 2046. The law firm pays rent in the low $70s per square foot, per sources familiar with the terms. That is roughly 15% below current Class A asking rents in Midtown.
The deal is a win for Brookfield’s repositioning strategy at One Liberty. The landlord spent $100 million on lobby upgrades, new elevators, and a fitness center. The building now achieves 92% occupancy, per CoStar data. That compares to 78% for the average Lower Manhattan office tower.
Cleary Gottlieb’s commitment is a signal for the downtown submarket. The law firm employs 1,200 attorneys in New York. It could have moved to Hudson Yards or Park Avenue. It chose to stay. That decision validates Brookfield’s capital expenditure and the broader thesis that tenants will pay for quality in a flight-to-quality cycle.
The lease also reflects the shifting balance of power in office leasing. Tenants with 2025–2027 expirations face a market where landlords are offering concessions but not slashing rents. Cleary Gottlieb’s renewal removes 475,000 square feet of shadow space from the market. That tightens supply for the remaining 4 million square feet of available space downtown.
Newmark’s Moshe Sukenik and Brian Cohen, along with Cushman & Wakefield’s Mark Weiss and Josh Kuriloff, represented the tenant. The brokers declined to comment on the terms. But the structure is instructive: a long-term renewal with no expansion option. Cleary Gottlieb is not betting on headcount growth. It is betting on stability.
Brookfield’s internal team handled the landlord side. That saved the landlord a commission payment of roughly $8 million, based on standard 3% fees on a 20-year deal. The savings flow directly to the property’s net operating income. For a building with $120 million in annual rent, that is a 6.7% NOI boost.
The transaction comes as office REITs trade at 60% of net asset value. Public market investors are pricing in permanent vacancy. Private market deals like this one suggest otherwise. If Cleary Gottlieb is willing to commit 20 years at One Liberty, the discount to NAV may be overdone.
What happens next is the test. Brookfield must now lease the remaining 200,000 square feet of vacancy in the building. The landlord is targeting financial services and professional services tenants. The Cleary Gottlieb renewal gives Brookfield a marquee name to show prospective tenants. It also removes the risk of a 475,000-square-foot block hitting the market.
For Cleary Gottlieb, the calculus is simple. The firm pays below-market rent for a renovated asset in a submarket with limited new supply. It avoids the disruption of a move. It locks in occupancy costs for two decades. In a world where law firm profits per partner are under pressure from client fee resistance, that certainty has value.
The broader lesson for capital markets: institutional landlords with balance sheet depth can win renewals by investing in assets. Brookfield spent $100 million. It got a 20-year commitment. That is a 5-year payback on capital. In a 6% interest rate environment, that math works. The alternative—losing the tenant and facing 475,000 square feet of vacancy—would have been catastrophic.
One Liberty’s renewal is a microcosm of the office market’s bifurcation. The best assets, owned by well-capitalized landlords, are leasing. The rest are bleeding. Investors should own the former and short the latter. The Cleary Gottlieb deal is evidence that the gap is widening.