Versant, the NBCUniversal spinoff, has quietly turned what started as a temporary Times Square "summer camp" into a long-term command center in the heart of Midtown. The company has inked an 18-year lease at 229 West 43rd Street, expanding to roughly 250,000 square feet across six contiguous floors as it shifts production from other locations. The buildout includes custom studios, upgraded tech infrastructure and employee amenities, firmly establishing Versant as a heavyweight media tenant in a building that once defined New York’s newspaper era.
Industry sources say Versant has tacked on 84,509 square feet spread over the 11th, 12th and 14th floors, bringing its footprint in Columbia Property Trust’s landmark property to about 249,054 square feet under an extended 18-year agreement, with asking rents reportedly in the $70 to $85 per square foot range, according to Commercial Observer. A CBRE brokerage squad of Timothy Dempsey, J. Paul Stimpfle and Marlee Teplitzky handled the tenant side. The latest expansion builds on a short-term arrangement Versant used while it ramped up production operations in the building.
The Real Deal previously reported that Versant’s newest space stacks onto an earlier deal last year for roughly 165,000 square feet at the same address, pushing the company’s total presence to about a quarter-million square feet. The outlet also noted that the 1913-built property is now about 96 percent leased and that Columbia Property Trust bought the office component from Blackstone in 2015 for roughly $516 million. The retail condo below the offices was sold in 2025 for about $28 million after the prior owner lost the space to foreclosure in 2024.
Why Times Square Still Matters To Media
Columbia is treating the Versant deal like a validation of the building’s media DNA. Executive Vice President Ted Koltis said Versant’s growth “further establishes 229 West 43rd Street as a preeminent destination” in a statement cited by Citybiz. Versant has been wiring its floors with production rigs and technical infrastructure and is planning studios for brands including MS Now, USA Network, Golf Channel, E!, SYFY and Oxygen. That cluster of broadcast and digital outlets gives the building built-in synergies for live shows, ad sales and distribution, the kind of ecosystem Times Square has long traded on.
What It Means For Midtown Leasing
The timing lines up with a broader thaw in Manhattan’s office market. Colliers clocked 11.78 million square feet of leasing in the first quarter, the strongest Q1 since 2014, while availability tightened to about 13.7 percent. Those numbers help explain why a media operator would lock in a long-term, full-floor buildout in Midtown even as street-level retail and entertainment traffic remains uneven. Versant’s reported asking-rent band sits roughly in line with Manhattan Class A averages, reinforcing the case for a centralized, studio-heavy headquarters, per Colliers.
Versant’s larger footprint is expected to feature an outdoor terrace and custom-built studios aimed at supporting live production, plus new collaborative areas and an employee dining hub, as detailed by The Real Deal. The NBCUniversal spinoff is now the largest office tenant at 229 West 43rd Street, according to Commercial Observer. Columbia handled ownership representation internally, while CBRE represented Versant in hammering out the lease.
