Rudin's 55 Broad a perfect fit for finance training company

Real Estate Weekly, April 11, 2007

In what appears to be a natural fit, a leading global financial services training company will soon relocate its New York headquarters to a building that's not only regarded as the hub of the city's technology community, but has also emerged in recent years as an important center for advanced learning.

London-based 7city Learning, Inc. has leased over 7,100 s/f of office and training facilities at the Rudin Family's New York Information Technology Center (NYITC) at 55 Broad Street. The company, presently based in much smaller quarters at 14 Wall Street, expects to move into its new facilities in late April.

"We're very excited about this expansion because it allows us to broaden our curriculum and offer many more public courses," stated 7city Learning Director Gil Christie.

The company, which serves a blue chip client base, provides leading edge solutions for financial and professional skills training through a wide range of learning media, including the internet.

"We're delighted that yet another outstanding school will be joining such elite educational institutions as Carnegie Mellon and Cornell University at our building," asserted Bill Rudin, president of Rudin Management Company, the operating arm of the Rudin Family holdings, which owns and developed the NYITC.

Rudin noted that, in recent weeks,Carnegie Mellon University has taken an additional 3,050 s/f in the building, bringing its overall total to nearly 11,000 s/f, while Cornell University has renewed its lease for 5,000 s/f.

Like longtime tenant, Brooklyn Polytechnical, Carnegie Mellon offers classes in various Master programs at the building while the Cornell Engineering School offers "distance learning" at NYITC for courses like Financial Engineering, Business Optimization and Research in Emergency Preparedness.

George Grace, of G.E. Grace Company, represented 7city Learning in the long-term leasing transaction while Gene Baumstein of Rudin Management represented the landlord.

One of the most technologically advanced buildings in the world, NYITC at 55 Broad Street offers satellite accessibility, single and multi-mode fiber optics, high speed category 5 copper wire, as well as a wide range of video conferencing, and internet access options and capabilities and a complete state-of-the-art work environment.

Opened in 1995, the 30-story, 400,000 s/f ffice tower, is now over 85% leased.