Universal Music Group (UMG) announced on Tuesday (May 20) that it will move its East Coast headquarters to Penn 2, a recently redeveloped building that sits on top of the transportation hub Penn Station.
“Located in the heart of Midtown Manhattan and literally adjacent to Madison Square Garden, one of music’s most storied venues where so many of our artists perform to a packed house, Penn 2 will serve as an ideal nexus for our employees, artists and songwriters,” UMG COO Boyd Muir said in a statement. “Beyond office space, Penn 2 will house music studios and retail spaces, featuring a range of artist merchandise and exclusive products.”
The building’s fourth to seventh floors will now serve as the home base for Def Jam Recordings, Island Records, Mercury Records, Republic Records, Verve Label Group, the East Coast offices of Universal Music Publishing Group and the merchandise company Bravado. UMG will also take over a ground-floor space in Penn 2 that will eventually house a “premium retail experience dedicated to serving music superfans.”
UMG’s new territory will cover 336,000 square feet, according to The Commercial Observer. That’s a step up from its current office — 242,505 square feet — which is further north in Manhattan at 1755 Broadway, a couple of blocks away from Central Park.
The 31-story Penn 2 building was built in 1968. It is owned, along with its neighbor Penn 1, by Vornado Realty Trust, which spent lavishly to revamp both properties. “We’re creating a real new district in a district that has been starved of [many improvements] forever,” Glen Weiss, executive vp of office leasing at Vornado, told Urban Land last year.
UMG’s new neighbors in Penn 2 will include Madison Square Garden Entertainment and Major League Soccer. In February, Vornado CEO Steven Roth told analysts that he hoped the building would be 80 percent leased by the end of the year.