New York Market Overview

Office:

DCAS is awaiting a decision on a lease at 14 Wall Street, while conducting an internal review of asset management. The lease was paused in November due to reports that DCAS' Jesse Hamilton pushed for the building, owned by a donor to Mayor Eric Adams. Commissioner Louis Molina said that a decision on the lease is expected soon and that DCAS is still preparing a request for proposals to hire five commercial brokerages to represent the city on its office leases.

Fox and News Corp. will leave 330,000 sq ft at 1211 Sixth Ave in November, dropping occupancy to 74%. Occupancy is expected to stabilize at 88% despite Ropes & Gray also leaving in two years.

Universal Music Group is in talks with the landlord to take 300,000 square feet. Vornado Roth said the company was weeks away from signing a 300,000-square-foot lease at the 31-story tower and was negotiating a letter of intent for a major headquarters to be 80% leased by the end of the year.

1. Jane Street Capital signed an expansion for 400,000-square-foot and a lease renewal totalling one million square feet in Brookfield Place.
2. Mayer Brown signed for another 10 years and expanded by almost 100,000 square feet.
3. Amazon agreed to a 193,000-square-foot sublease at 237 Park Avenue.
4. iA&E Television renewed its lease at 227 East 45th Street for 152,000 sf.
5. Mizuho Financial Group subleased 151,000 square feet at 1285 Sixth Avenue.
6. iCapital leased space at 1 Grand Central Place for 141,000 sf.
7. WeWork leased space at 5 Manhattan West for 112,000 sf.
8. Capital One signed an expansion lease for 97,000 RSF at 114 Fifth Avenue.
9. Booking Holdings signed a lease at 60 East 42nd Street for 65,000 sf.
10. GoldenTree Asset Management signed a lease at 767 Fifth Avenue for 60,000 sf.
11. Gersh Academy signed a 10-year lease for 58,000 RSF at 25 Chapel Street.
12. S Rothschild signed a renewal lease for 47,000 sf 1407 Broadway.
13. Geller & Co. signed a lease for 45,000 square feet 99 Park Avenue.
14. Uber leased an additional 44,000 square feet at 3 World Trade Center, where Uber already occupies 300,000 square feet.
15. BuzzFeed signed a lease for 42,000 square feet at 50 West 23rd Street, less than half of the space they occupied at 224 Park Avenue South before subletting it in 2022.
16. Masterworks agreed to sublease 37,000 square feet on the 57th Floor of 1 World Trade Center from Network Capital.

Retail:

1. Meow Wolf leased 75,000 sq ft at Pier 17 for a new interactive art attraction. Construction will begin in Q3 2025.
2. Lidl signed a lease at 597 Grand Street in East Williamsburg and will occupy nearly 27,000 square feet.
3. Avis Budget Group signed a new 20-year lease at 4075 Boston Road for 21,400 sf.
4. Lidl signed a new 15-year lease at 155 East 31st Street for 20,700 sf.
5. Masaharu Morimoto, Montclair Hospitality Group signed a new lease at 1255 Broadway for 17,600 sf for a new restaurant concept.
6. Gymshark signed a new lease for the entire building at 11 Bond Street for 15,000 sf.
7. Activate Games signed a new lease at 24 Union Square East for 14,800 sf.
8. Cocoon signed a new 12-year lease at 408 Columbus Avenue for 13,900 sf.
9. Mango signed a new lease at 1976 Broadway for 13,000 sf.
10. Audemars Piguet signed a lease for 12,000 square feet at 785 Fifth Avenue. The asking rent for the two-floor space was $4.8 million per year.
11. Blinds To Go leased at 116 Seventh Avenue with 12,000 sf.
12. Eternal signed a new 10-year lease at 525 West 26th Street for 12,000 sf.
13. Oiji STK signed a new lease at 295 Fifth Avenue for 10,500 sf.
14. Mott Haven Discount signed a new 15-year lease at 537 East 138th Street for 9,500 sf.

1 Bowling Green, also known as the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, was built in 1907 and is about 320,000 square feet. The seven-story Beaux Arts building designed by Cass Gilbert could bring in a premium price from a user looking for an architectural gem. The Department of Finance values it at $57,213,000. The building could sell for well in excess of $1,000 per square foot, or about $378 million.

290 Broadway, also known as the Foley Square Federal Building, could also be an attractive property. The 34-story building, which opened in 1994 and the Department of Finance values at $95,266,350. The building runs an entire city block and encompasses one million square feet, of which 769,000 square feet are currently rentable. It has zoning for both commercial and residential and would likely be considered for conversion under the City of Yes initiative.

The Howard Street Garage is another building that could be a good contender for City of Yes. Built in 1933, the property is small, with only 65,000 square feet, of which only about 2,400 square feet are rentable. And its Department of Finance value is only $7,346,250. A unique conversion opportunity property because under the City of Yes, it could be redeveloped up to more than 150,000 building square feet for more housing.

500 Pearl Street, the 27-story Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse was built in 1994 and offers 684,000 currently rentable square feet. It has residential zoning, so could likely see a conversion here as well to rental and condos.

26 Federal Plaza, the country’s tallest federal office building, the existing tenants would make a residential conversion difficult. Built in 1977, the 41-story building offers nearly 2.3 million rentable square feet. The potential to be taken offline and converted to residential would be difficult to do, but not impossible. Although that discount could be offset by a sale-leaseback where the GSA guarantees a private owner a long-term lease.

40 Centre Street was built in 1936 and offers 541,000 rentable square feet with a building area of 635,000 square feet. The 37-story courthouse consists of a six-story base and a 31-story office tower, which the Department of Finance assesses to be worth $55,582,200. While an architectural gem, it wouldn’t be as attractive to potential buyers or tenants. 40 Centre Street would most likely be sold to investors who would do a sale-leaseback with the government because the properties would likely trade at a large discount to the market, $300 per square foot.

799 United Nations Plaza, the government’s newest building. Built in 2010, the 26-story property is 325,000 square feet, of which 127,000 is currently rentable. The Department of Finance assesses its value at $62,816,850.

The Downtown office market tenants inked deals for 1.25 million square feet in Downtown Manhattan.