Viacom, the global entertainment content company, has renewed and extended a lease on its 1.3 million sq. ft. headquarters at 1515 Broadway in New York’s Times Square.

It is the third largest lease ever signed in Midtown Manhattan, according to SL Green, a New York-based publicly held real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns the property in a joint venture with SITQ. Spokesmen for Green declined to reveal the full price of the lease.

Viacom’s renewal extends the lease through mid-2015. It includes 1.1 million sq. ft. of space for which the lease would have expired in 2010, and another 170,000 sq. ft. that had been leased until after 2012.

“For more than a decade Times Square has been the epicenter of corporate resurgence in Manhattan and 1515 Broadway stands prominently at this ‘Crossroads of the World,’” notes Marc Holliday, chief executive officer of SL Green.

The Viacom transaction will save Green more than $200 million, including the cost of attracting another tenant, Holliday says.

SL Green, which owns 30 New York office properties totaling 23.7 million sq. ft., has completed more than 3 million sq. ft. of lease transactions in 2008, the REIT reports, including early renewals. The Viacom renewal has cut by about 30% the amount of square footage of its leases expiring over the next two years.

CB Richard Ellis and the law firm of Shearman & Sterling represented Viacom in the transaction.