Credit-rating agency KBRA today backed off a report it issued last week noting that Fox Corp. was planning to leave behind a quarter of its office space at 1211 Sixth Ave., the Midtown tower where Rupert Murdoch’s media empire leases more than 1.1 million square feet.
“The tenant is expected to remain in place,” KBRA said in a statement Monday that corrected “an assumption” published in a March 26 report that Fox was expected to downsize. The statement did not explain how the mistake occurred, and KBRA declined to elaborate.
In an article by Crain’s last week based on data in the KBRA report, landlord RXR said the “consolidation” was expected as part of a 2022 renewal deal, but Fox insisted it wasn’t giving up any space after extending its lease.
KBRA said its downgrade of 1211 Sixth’s $1 billion mortgage, made as part of its report last week, still holds. The analyst cited an impending decline in occupancy for the 45-story building. It noted that law firm Ropes & Gray plans to move out of 330,000 square feet in two years, decamping for 1285 Sixth Ave., and that in November Disney would move out of 150,000 square feet at 1211 Sixth that it subleased from Fox.
The earlier report noted that Fox or related entities would vacate another roughly 180,000 square feet in addition to the Disney sublease. KBRA appears to have backed off of that assertion. The building houses the corporate headquarters for Fox and News Corp., studios for Fox News, and the Wall Street Journal and New York Post newsrooms.
Fox declined to comment on KBRA’s Monday statement.
