The last several years have been difficult for those seeking to rent large blocks of office space in a single building in Manhattan. Yet Getty Images, which calls itself the world's biggest provider of photographs and other visual materials, is moving its approximately 500 New York employees from seven scattered locations into almost 225,000 square feet in a 17-story building in TriBeCa.

In a further twist, the space had not been listed with brokers or otherwise advertised for rent. The space is on the fourth and fifth floors in a triangular, 1.1 million-square-foot building, at 75 Varick Street, renamed 1 Hudson Square. Getty Images has also acquired 36,000 feet more across the street, in adjoining buildings at 12-16 Vestry Street and 200 Hudson Street.

Getty Images also has an option on an additional 72,000 square feet of space on the third floor at 1 Hudson Square, effective at the end of January 2002, but meantime, since its consolidation did not require as much space as it thought, it has put its 73,000 square feet on the sixth floor on the market.

Printers make way for higher-paying tenants.

Founded in London in 1995 but based in Seattle since 1999, Getty Images at first wanted 35,000 square feet for a New York office. But it acquired five New York companies scattered across seven locations in Manhattan in the last six years, and its space requirements soared. The New York companies include the Image Bank and the Visual Communications Group, previously Getty's biggest competitors.

Getty's search and negotiations took more than a year before the final lease was signed last April.

"It took time, effort and determination to put it all together," said James Meiskin, the president of Plymouth Partners, which represented the New York real estate operations of Getty Images, "because it involved consolidating the seven Getty locations, and the landlord hat to buy out and relocate 13 companies that occupied the space that Getty moved into."

Because none of that space was on the market, Mr. Meiskin said he and Tim Kucha, a director of Plymouth Partners, had to convince the building's landlord that it was worth many millions of dollars for it to negotiate the early end of the 13 leases.

Getty's lease, for 15 years with options, is valued by real estate executives at $175 million to $200 million.

Getty's new landlord is Trinity Real Estate, a unit of the Parish of Trinity Church, which owns extensive property in the Hudson Square area.

Like many other landlords, in the last several years Trinity has not been renewing the leases of its lowest-paying tenants so that it can replace them with higher-paying ones. Simultaneously, it is upgrading its buildings, including a revamping of at least $1 million at 1 Hudson Square. Most of Trinity's lowest-paying tenants in recent years have been printers or related businesses.

All but a few of the 13 companies that have been moved from 1 Hudson Square, or soon will be, were affiliated with the printing industry. None had their leases ended involuntarily, said Stuart A. Christie, a former real estate lawyer, who has been leasing offices for Trinity for three years.

In addition, Mr. Christie said, "five of the 13 who accepted buyouts moved into other Trinity-owned buildings in the surrounding area."

Mr. Meiskin, Mr. Kucha and Marshall J. Cohen, a lawyer with the Manhattan firm of Stadtmauer Bailkin who represented Getty Images, each said that Trinity was as concerned about honoring its existing contracts as about the additional rent it would get from Getty.

"They were terrific," Mr. Cohen said of Trinity. "They've worked hard to turn the building into a beautiful piece of real estate, and they were honorable in our dealings."

Mr. Meiskin contrasted the Trinity negotiation with an earlier one on behalf of Getty Images involving 68,000 square feet in a building on Eighth Avenue. "We had a handshake with the owners and told them to prepare leases," he said. "But after we agreed on terms, we learned the owners decided to lease it to others for more money."

While the search for space and subsequent negotiations were long and complicated, Getty Images had no complaints. Jonathan Klein, the company’s co-founder and chief executive, said it was well worth the wait, adding cheerfully: "Moving is always complicated. Show me one that isn’t."

The company’s other co-founder, as well as president, is Mark Getty, a grandson of J. Paul Getty, the oil magnate, who died in 1976. Getty Images has 2,600 employees.

Consolidating its New York operations meant that certain companies that Getty Images acquired had to go through more than one move before settling in at Hudson Square.

"But we took the view that it was important to consolidate," Mr. Klein said, "important financially, culturally and for an easier flow of expertise." Having acquired companies in many lands with many cultures, he added, "When we put people together geographically, we find they have more in common than they think."