Atlas Air Extends HQ Lease in Purchase; To Spend $38 Million on Upgrades

PURCHASE—Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings is staying in Westchester County and is in fact renewing and extending its headquarters lease long-term at 2000 Westchester Ave. here and investing nearly $38 million on office space upgrades and equipment.

The company and New York State officials jointly announced that Atlas Air had signed a long-term lease renewal for its approximately 120,000-square-foot headquarters at the former Texaco headquarters. The company did not provide terms of the long-term lease extension for its current lease that expires in 2022.

Atlas’ plans in New York include creating 100 additional jobs and enhancing headquarters offices to accommodate its growing employee base and strategic business growth. The company tells Real Estate In-Depth that its extension does not involve any increase in the size of its headquarters space and that the company’s $37.5 million investment over the next five years will involve efforts to optimize its existing space.

The company, which shares its headquarters building with Morgan Stanley, will retain the 568 jobs currently housed at the four-story, 750,000-square-foot building that prior to 2002 was the headquarters of Texaco.

In connection with the lease extension and jobs commitment, Empire State Development will provide Atlas Air up to $5 million in Excelsior Jobs Program tax credits, which are directly tied to job creation. The jobs created will be in flight operations, as well as roles in finance, safety, ground operations, procurement, systems operations, human resources and security.

“New York is our home and we are excited to strengthen our ties and expand our company in this dynamic, thriving state,” said William J. Flynn, chairman and CEO of Atlas Air Worldwide. “We will continue to grow our team of talented, world-class, customer-focused employees in New York and throughout our global network.”

Atlas Air Worldwide is a cargo airline, passenger charter airline, and aircraft lessor. The company maintains a fleet of 747s, 777s, 767s, and 737s and operates a 24-hour global control center. The company maintains operations centers near the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, in Anchorage, Alaska, and Hong Kong; a training center in Miami and key logistics centers around the world, including John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, to support its global network.

Back in June 2011, Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, confirmed it had decided to maintain its corporate headquarters in Purchase and would retain 460 existing jobs and create 50 new full-time positions in New York State.

Empire State Development announced at the time that Atlas Air Worldwide would receive up to $8.5 million in Excelsior Job Program benefits and up to $442,000 in sales tax exemptions from Westchester County’s Industrial Development Agency. In addition, the company was entitled to energy credits valued at approximately $480,000 over a 10-year period. The company received aggressive incentive offers from several other locations, but chose to reinvest in New York State, the state agency noted.

John Jordan
Editor, Real Estate In-Depth