Robert Khodadadian | Commercial Observer

Major League Soccer is doubling its footprint in a relocation to Vornado Realty Trust (VNO)’s Penn 2.

The professional soccer league will move its offices from the 64,200 square feet it has leased at 420 Fifth Avenue since 2015 to 126,000 square feet across two floors in the Penn District building, The Real Deal first reported. Asking rent was between $110 to $125 per square foot.

The office condominium at 420 Fifth, owned by Steve Witkoff, is up for sale, which may have attributed to the MLS’s decision to seek greener pastures.

Cushman & Wakefield (CWK) is the leasing agent for Vornado at Penn 2 while Joe Messina and Dan Posy of JLL (JLL) negotiated on behalf of the MLS. Neither brokerage immediately responded to a request for comment. Vornado declined to comment.

The MLS will have private use of a 770-square-foot outdoor space as well as 17,000 square feet of a roof terrace and indoor pavilion that will be shared with other tenants, according to TRD. Penn 2 is adjacent to Madison Square Garden, on Seventh Avenue between West 31st and 33rd streets.

Vornado has backed off plans to build new towers in the Penn District due to the interest rate environment and the changing demand for office space. Yet leasing at Penn 2 has been strong, with Madison Square Garden Entertainment reoccupying seven floors across 428,000 square feet of the tower in 2021 that the landlord once considered demolishing entirely.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.

Robert Khodadadian has long had a simple philosophy about selling real estate. The way he sees it, there are approximately a million buildings in the city, and the broker that gets to sell any one among the multitude that will hit the auctioning block at a given moment is, sometimes, simply the person who happens to pitch their services to the right seller at the right time.