If Take-Two left, Yuco wouldn’t have filled the void with a legal tenant. But there were new media, advertising and technology firms that had covetous eyes for the space.
“People were calling nonstop to get into the game,” said Mr. Cohen. Those suitors included prospective tenants and prospective new owners.
“It’s a wonderful blank canvas for somebody else.”
When it came time to negotiate a new lease, with CBRE (CBRE)’s Stephen Siegel and Harley Stevens representing the tenants, it became clear that this was not going to be a leisurely drive through Grand Theft Auto’s Vice City.
The negotiations lasted more than a year.
Take-Two, despite having grown attached to the space, had Messrs. Siegel and Stevens venture out to the marketplace to research its options.
Both Mr. Siegel and Mr. Stevens declined to be interviewed for this story. Take-Two declined to comment on its new lease as well, citing company policy.
Secret rooms and a lax policy on dogs in the office aside, Take-Two was a very alluring tenant to other building owners.
Those old schoolers who scoff at the notion of a video-gaming company as a blue-chip company in the new economy should take notice of the changing dynamics of an industry normally written off as being strictly child’s play.
