The fabled Martha Graham Dance Co., which will celebrate the centennial of its founding next year, will move from its current site at the Westbeth Home of the Arts, at 55 Bethune St., to the Paramount Building at 1501 Broadway, Crain’s New York Business has reported.
The Martha Graham Dance Co. will move to the Paramount Building in early 2026. Image courtesy of CommercialEdge
The new lease for 30,757 square feet on the 11th floor reportedly takes effect early next year and won’t expire until 2056.
Although the 694,100-square-foot, 33-story tower was completed in 1926, it underwent a major renovation in 2017 and is still a Class A building, according to information provided by CommercialEdge. The landlord is Levin Management, of North Plainfield, N.J., operating as Paramount Leasehold LP.
Its current tenants include artsy entities such as the Dramatists Guild, the American Federation of Musicians and the Nederlander Organization, one of the nation’s largest operators of live theaters and music venues, including nine in New York City, five in Chicago and three in London’s West End.
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Martha Graham Dance’s new space reportedly will feature six studios fitted out for a total of about $8 million.
A glimpse of history
Having been “born” in the same year, both the dance company and its new home have had long histories and appear to be thriving.
Martha Graham Dance was founded in 1926 by Martha Graham (1894–1991), a pathbreaking dancer, choreographer and teacher, known (at least early in her long career) for a distinctly abstract, even austere, approach to choreography. The expressive, dramatic “Graham technique” is still taught today.
In 1944, Graham collaborated with noted U.S. composer Aaron Copland on a piece titled “American Spring.” Copland’s music for the piece earned him a Pulitzer Prize.
After Graham’s death in 1991, the company endured difficult times, but since about the mid-2000s has regained its footing. Dancers and choreographers associated with the company over the decades included luminaries like Merce Cunningham, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev.
Manhattan’s office market performance
The first quarter saw Manhattan experience the strongest start of office leasing since 2014, with volume up by 11.6 percent, quarter-over-quarter, according to a report from Colliers. That amounted to a total of 11.4 million square feet of leasing.
Average asking office rents across the borough rose by 1.5 percent, to $74.53 per square foot. Manhattan’s overall office availability slid to 16.1 percent, which Colliers reported was the borough’s tightest since February 2021.
At the end of January, Rudin landed Spectrum Reach, Charter Communications’ ad sales business, as a tenant at 3 Times Square. Spectrum Reach took an 11-year lease on the 30-story building’s 26th and 27th floors. The tenant is relocating from 1633 Broadway, also known as the Thomson Reuters Building.