AIG to Relocate NYC Headquarters to Midtown From Downtown
AIG to Relocate New York Headquarters to Midtown Office Space
(Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc. will move its headquarters to midtown Manhattan from downtown in the latest reshaping of New York City’s financial district.
The company, which is reworking its real estate strategy, will occupy eight floors at 1271 Avenue of the Americas, AIG said in a statement Tuesday. It will still maintain a presence in Manhattan’s financial district with office space at 28 Liberty St. That building, in addition to a location at 30 Hudson St. in Jersey City, New Jersey, will form the rest of the insurer’s New York metropolitan area footprint.
Firms including Deutsche Bank AG in recent years have been departing the financial district, a historic part of the city that includes Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange. AIG, which will still have an office in the area on Liberty Street, will move from its current headquarters at 175 Water St. While many firms have shifted to Midtown or Hudson Yards, companies including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. still have locations downtown.
AIG Chief Executive Officer Brian Duperreault has been pushing to modernize the company through an initiative called AIG 200, an effort that began before the pandemic and included a re-evaluation of the insurer’s real estate strategy. The company, which hired James Love to oversee its real estate operations last year, expects to move into the three offices next year.
“Our new Midtown headquarters building is in close proximity to many of our clients, distribution partners and other stakeholders,” Duperreault said in the statement.
‘Resilient City’
The move represents a major employer sticking with a Manhattan presence despite questions the pandemic has raised about the future of urban office space as employees work remotely. AIG had been considering a move for a while, with reports in 2018 indicating that the firm was looking at the building in Midtown. The new location on the Avenue of the Americas puts AIG near insurance broker Marsh & McLennan Cos. and rival Chubb Ltd.
“New York City has played an important part in AIG’s history and we are proud to be headquartered in this unique and resilient city,” Duperreault said.
The CEO crafted AIG 200 as an effort to help the insurer, which celebrated its 100th anniversary last year, advance toward the next chapter of its history. The projects range from tackling the property-casualty business with the build-out of a commercial-underwriting platform to tweaking its information-technology operations.
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