Update: MetLife to Move all New York City Offices to 200 Park Avenue Landmark Building by 2017
March 20, 2015 by Fran Matso Lysiak, senior associate editor, BestWeek: fran.lysiak@ambest.com
NEW YORK – (This corrects information in the third paragraph). MetLife Inc. plans to make the MetLife Building at 200 Park Avenue its only employee location in New York City. As a result, the largest U.S. life insurer will be moving from 1095 Avenue of the Americas, 277 Park Avenue and Long Island City to this one central location, in phases, starting in December 2016.
MetLife signed a 12-year lease with Tishman Speyer to increase its footprint in the building by about 430,000 square feet, the company said in a statement. “All moves are expected to be completed by the first half of 2017.”
John Calagna, a spokesman for MetLife, said in an email the company is not disclosing costs. However, there is a cost-savings component regarding the amount MetLife will be paying for the lease at 200 Park versus its current lease costs.
MetLife “wanted to have a state-of-the-art space designed to foster greater collaboration among our New York City employees, similar to our new campuses in Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina,” Calagna said.
“The MetLife Building at 200 Park Avenue is an iconic landmark in New York City, and our MetLife sign is a world-renowned part of the skyline,” MetLife said.
In March 2013, MetLife said it was transferring 2,600 jobs from five Northeast states, as well as California, to two cities in North Carolina in an effort to cut costs while receiving a job grant from North Carolina (Best’s News Service, March 8, 2013).
MetLife, around that time, had about 23,000 employees in administrative positions, mostly in the Northeast United States.
Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. currently has a Best’s Financial Strength Rating of A+ (Superior).
On the afternoon of March 19, MetLife Inc. (NYSE: MET) stock was trading at $50.61 a share, down 2.03% from the previous close.