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Law Firms Widen Searches: In an effort to cut costs, law firms increasingly look to Far West Side, downtown

Two decades ago, law firms helped colonize the west side of Midtown when they moved to then-edgy areas like Sixth Avenue, Times Square and Eighth Avenue in search of more-affordable rents.

Now the leases that firms signed back then are coming due, and many are finding they must pay dearly to stay or look to new neighborhoods like Downtown and the Far West Side.

Law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in 1989 moved to the just-completed Worldwide Plaza, when rents in the area were about $35 a square foot, according to brokerage Cassidy Turley. But when the firm renewed its lease at the top of the market in 2007, the firm agreed to pay more than double that—$85 a square foot, according brokers familiar with the deal. 

(Source: The Wall Street Journal)