Morgan Stanley Concentrates Office Space in NYC

March 20, 2013 / Written by Corporate Suites Staff

Morgan Stanley, one of the world’s largest investment and financial firms, has announced a shift in its real estate and locations – focusing on growing their NYC office space location and consolidating other offices into its premier location in the Financial District at 1 New York Plaza. This comes after the iconic building sustained heavy damage during Hurricane Sandy. Now back at full operation after repairs from the damage, Morgan Stanley hopes to expand its space at Manhattan’s southernmost skyscraper which looks out over Battery Park.

Like many other multinational firms, Morgan Stanley has always had major operations within New York City, but in the past spread out its ventures to attract new talent and have redundancies in case of emergencies – such as the September 11th attacks or Hurricane Sandy. Its most notable operation outside of New York City is across the river at 34 Exchange Place in Jersey City, part of the Harborside Financial Center, with neighbors such as Charles Schwab and Dow Jones. Many of these sites were developed after September 11th to provide support and recovery, and Exchange Place continues to be home to many financial firms.

But Morgan Stanley, who also has operations in Brooklyn and Princeton, New Jersey; is looking to consolidate to save on office space rental costs and bring its focus back to the Financial District. In a report from Bloomberg, Morgan Stanley filed a notice with the New Jersey state department on its decision to close its Princeton location which is home to 95 employees. CEO James Gorman has emphasized the needs to cut costs while retaining talent and improving returns on equity. The staff of the Princeton, New Jersey Morgan Stanley off location – which is located 50 miles southwest of New York City, but is home to many New York City commuters via the Northeast Corridor rail line – will be offered positions at other Morgan Stanley office locations such as 1 New York Plaza or at its Philadelphia offices.