Well that’s the way it looks anyway as WPP has taken an option to move Young & Rubicam into 3 Columbus Circle, a big refurbed office block off 8th Avenue and near Central Park.
This would mean Y&R departing its 285 Madison Avenue HQ, the agency’s home since its foundation in 1923. If it goes ahead with the deal Y&R will take 300,000 sq ft in the 768,000 sq ft tower.
Y&R, once the biggest agency in the US under famous boss Ed Ney, was bought by Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP in 2000. The agency, the flagship company in WPP’s Y&R Brands which also includes PR firm Burson-Marsteller and direct marketer Wunderman, has had a torrid 2011, losing boss Hamish McLennan and a number of key accounts including Accenture, Office Depot and $360m Sears. McLennan was replaced by Wunderman boss David Sable.
Sears was handled out of Y&R’s Chicago office, leading to speculation that Y&R might close it and move what was left to New York.
There’ll certainly be room in its vast new HQ.
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