Bravo, Brookfield! Major Lease Signed at 2 WFC

At long last, some good news for Brookfield Properties! The real estate investment firm was struck by lightning last fall, when Bank of America announced the imminent absorption of Merrill Lynch, which has some 4.2 million square feet in Brookfield’s World Financial Center. But now: corporate law firm Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal has signed a lease for over 135,000 square feet at 2 World Financial Center.

Right now, the monster of a building, consisting of 2.6 million square feet, is triple-net-leased to Merrill Lynch. The unusual deal has the law firm leasing from Merrill through 2013 and then directly from Brookfield through 2018. 

The space in question comprises half of the 10th floor; and floors 26, 27 and 28, three of the five floors that had been subleased to law firm Thacher Proffitt & Wood, which, after 160 years in business, crumpled in December, another victim of the credit crisis.

Sonnenschein acquired the core of Thacher Proffitt’s practice in December, and the three floors will be used to house the roughly 115 former Thacher attorneys and their support staff, according to Jeff Mutterperl, a Sonnenschein spokesman.

This deal will roughly double the Chicago-based law firm’s New York presence. Right now, the firm has offices in the McGraw-Hill building at 1221 Avenue of the Americas.

drubinstein@observer.com