National City Bank leases full floor

Cleveland, Ohio-based National City Bank has signed a new lease for 8,500 s/f on the eighth floor of the 14-story building, located at 4 Stamford Plaza in Downtown Stamford, CT.

The space is the bank's first office location within the New York metropolitan area and includes a sophisticated trading floor on the premises.

Studley's executive managing director Michael Goldman together with senior managing director Craig Lemle exclusively represented the bank in negotiations with landlord, Equity Office Properties, which was represented in-house by Margaret Carlson.

"National City Bank was keen to take on this particular space because it had the infrastructure in place to accommodate its operations virtually immediately," said Lemle.

"Moreover, since the bank is headquartered in an Equity Office Properties-owned building in Cleveland, it felt comfortable leasing from the same landlord in Stamford."

The bank will move 40 people into its new Connecticut office in June.

What are people saying about mortgages today:

Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Territorial Savings Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgages all cut their 30-year mortgage rates to 5.75 percent this week.

Most people think of a mortgage as a means to an end. After all, you buy a house, not a home loan. But a mortgage is much more than the path to homeownership. It is a financial instrument that must be managed, just like any other financial investment.