Big East Conference selects location for headquarters

The Big East conference signed a 10-year lease agreement that will bring the conference's official headquarters to Midtown Manhattan, the conference announced Wednesday morning.

The agreement, settled with The Durst Organization is for a seventh-floor office space totaling 13, 742 square feet on the corner of Third Avenue and 42nd Street. The interior will serve as the principal offices for the Big East conference staff and become available for conference administrators from institutions traveling to the New York metropolitan area.

Commissioner Val Ackerman was enthused with the idea of relocating to New York City when given the opportunity.

"As part of the Big East reconfiguration, our presidents made a strategic decision to situate our conference headquarters in New York City, and we are very excited that our search landed us prime space in midtown Manhattan," Commissioner Ackerman said Wednesday morning.

"The conference has thrived off of a decades-long connection to New York City, perhaps most evident with our men's basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden, and our new home will serve as the ideal location to build on the many commercial, business and media connections that we have in this area."

Before it's move to New York, The Big East owned property in Providence, Rhode Island. Since 2013, the conference held temporary space in Times Square office of the law firm Proskauer Rose LLP.

The Durst Organization, one of the oldest family-run, commercial and residential real estate companies in New York City, was represented with one in house employee to close the deal with the conference.

Terms of the deal were not released.

"We are very pleased the Big East chose 655 Third Avenue as its new home," said Jonathan Durst, President of The Durst Organization. "We look forward to many years of partnership and growth with this outstanding organization."