50 NYC office buildings are now in the $100 psf club

GM Building saw three $200 psf deals in 2015

From left: The GM Building at 767 Fifth Avenue, 11 Madison Avenue And 51 Astor Place
From left: The GM Building at 767 Fifth Avenue, 11 Madison Avenue And 51 Astor Place

Triple-digit rents used to be reserved for just a handful of New York City’s spiffiest office buildings, but a new report sheds light on the dramatic price hikes in the office market. Fifty properties in the city are now renting space at more than $100 per square foot.

That number was up from just 33 buildings in 2014, according to JLL, which authored the report. Properties that joined the club last year include 11 Madison Avenue, 860 Washington Street, 51 Astor Place, and others.

The GM Building, which is owned by a partnership between Boston Properties, Soho China and the Safra family, saw three leases cross the $200-per-square-foot threshold, a new record for the city, the New York Post reported. Investment firm Belfer Management will pay starting rents of $220 per square foot there. But the record isn’t likely to last long, given hedge fund Citadel Management’s commitment to cough up about $300 per square foot for the top floor of L&L Holding’s 425 Park Avenue.

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A total of 138 office deals with starting rents over $100 per square foot were done in 2015, according to the Post, a 42 percent year-over-year jump from 97 in 2014. More than half were new lease signings.

A full 25 percent of deals over $100-per-square-foot were at buildings owned by Vornado Realty Trust, according to the newspaper.

The Real Deal chronicled the city’s most lucrative office lease deals in 2015 last month. [NYP]Ariel Stulberg