The city’s Department of Finance is planning to lease 175,000 square feet of office space at Sabey Data Centers’ repositioning of the former Verizon Building at 375 Pearl Street in the Financial District.

The DOF, led by Commissioner Jacques Jiha, is seeking final approval to occupy the 26th through 30th floors at the 1.1 million-square-foot tower Dave Sabey’s Seattle-based firm bought a controlling interest in along with Young Woo and Associates in 2011 for $120 million.

A CBRE leasing team led by Gerry Miovski, Gregg Rothkin and Zakery Snider referred questions to a Sabey spokesperson, who confirmed the deal and said the building’s façade renovation should be completed later this year. Asking rents in the building range from $45 to $51 per square foot.

Rising 32 stories at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, 375 Pearl is often derided as one of the most aesthetically offensive buildings in the city, with a near monolithic limestone exterior interrupted only by small strips of black windows that, for a long time, were boarded up from the inside.

Sabey and his team are in the middle of a renovation that will remove portions of the building’s exterior and replace them with a curtain-wall structure.

As a result of its former life as a telephone switching center, 375 Pearl is one of the best-connected buildings in the city, and is engineered to withstand a nuclear blast.

Last year, the NYPD leased 18,000 square feet on the building’s 22nd floor.

Source: NYC’s Finance Department to lease 175K sf at former Verizon Building