Financial ratings giant Moody’s is getting closer to a major space consolidation, as the company is currently in negotiations for a possible move to 400,000 square feet of office space in Brookfield Place, down from its current 758,000 square feet at 7 World Trade Center.

Moody’s is represented by Robert Lowe at Cushman & Wakefield, while Brookfield is represented by a JLL team led by Paul Glickman.

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The potential asking rent and lease length are unclear. A July office listing for Brookfield’s nearby 225 Liberty Street showed an asking rent of $72 per square foot. 

It is also unclear exactly which building at Brookfield Place Moody’s is considering, although the lower portion of 200 Vesey Street currently has one of the biggest available blocks of space at the complex. 

Brookfield has been skilled at moving tenants around its properties to accommodate new and larger tenants, including its decision to allow Jane Street to grow to 1 million square feet at 250 Vesey Street earlier this year.   

Sources say Silverstein Properties, which owns 7 World Trade Center, is negotiating with current law firm tenant WilmerHale to backfill some of the space that Moody’s will leave behind if the company relocates. WilmerHale signed a lease for 210,000 square feet in April of 2011 for floors 41 through 45.

Promoted by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, that lease was the first to incorporate language to promote enhanced energy efficiency and sustainability, with building owners and tenants sharing both the cost and benefits of energy efficiency improvements.

Moody’s has been leasing space at 7 World Trade Center, also known as 250 Greenwich Street, in tranches starting in 2006, when it announced that it signed a 20-year lease for 590,000 square feet across 15 floors of the new 52-story tower.

By April of 2007, Moody’s had expanded to 670,000 square feet on 17 floors. That fall, the parties announced that Moody’s would sell its headquarters at 99 Church Street to a joint venture between Silverstein Properties and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System pension fund for $170 million. The building was eventually demolished and became the site of Silverstein’s Four Seasons hotel and residences, which was designed by Robert A.M. Stern, who died in November.

Moody’s soon expanded to 680,000 square feet, then added another 129,000 square feet on the top three floors of 7 World Trade Center in 2013 with a sublease from Portigon, at a reported asking rent of $65 per square foot.

With 7 World Trade Center full by 2015, Moody’s expanded by an additional 75,000 square feet on the 56th and 57th floors of One World Trade Center, at an asking rent of $69 per foot.

In 2019, Moody’s subleased two of its floors to Skidmore Owings Merrill, the designer of 7 World Trade Center.

But in August 2020, during the throes of the pandemic, Moody’s One World Trade Center space was offered as a sub-sublease through November 2027 by Lowe, with IBISWorld subleasing the entire 56th floor. The 57th floor was subleased by Masterworks in 2025.

Since the pandemic, Moody’s has been rethinking its workspaces with Huntsman Architectural Group to transform warrens of tiny offices into collaborative spaces and reduce its global footprint.

Representatives for Moody’s, Brookfield and JLL did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Silverstein and C&W declined to comment.