TRD Pro: NYC’s biggest office leases of July

As the city’s office market enjoyed a needed jolt, TRD ranked the top leases, renewals and expansions

Brookfield Properties' Ben Brown and the New York Times Building at 620 Eighth Avenue (Brookfield, Getty Images, LoopNet)
Brookfield Properties' Ben Brown and the New York Times Building at 620 Eighth Avenue (Brookfield, Getty Images, LoopNet)

The following is a preview of one of the hundreds of data sets that will be available on TRD Pro — the one-stop real estate terminal that provides all the data and market information you need.

After two years of stops and starts, Manhattan’s office market appears to be on a bit of a hot streak.

Leasing activity in the borough has set a new post-pandemic high for three consecutive months, according to data from Colliers, with office tenants signing deals for more than 3.4 million square feet in August, up from 3.2 million in July.

In Midtown, where average asking rents are approaching $80 per square foot, availability is at its lowest level since December 2020 following six consecutive months of positive net absorption.

To learn which types of tenants are grabbing the most space (and which landlords are benefiting), The Real Deal collected information from third-party sources to compile a list of the 10 largest office leases, including renewals, signed across the city in July.

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Each of the top five leases were for more than 100,000 square feet, while four of the top five were renewals or expansions of tenants’ existing space.

Brookfield Properties scored two of the top five, including the largest: tech firm Datadog’s renewal at 620 Eighth Avenue in Midtown, known as The New York Times building, where the startup is expanding to 330,000 square feet. Datadog originally moved in six years ago on a 31,500-square-foot sublease.

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Brookfield also inked financial services firm Jane Street Capital to a 155,000-square-foot renewal at its Brookfield Place complex in the Financial District. The lease is a slight expansion of Jane Street’s existing space.

Edison Properties also had a pair of deals, signing employment website Indeed to a renewal and expansion to more than 247,000 square feet at 1120 Sixth Avenue in Midtown, and getting Verizon to take the entire 144,000-square-foot building at 620 12th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen.

Ric Clark and Tod Waterman’s WatermanClark placed third on the list, signing Katz Media Group to a 227,000-square-foot renewal at 125 West 55th Street.

Unsurprisingly, nearly all of the top leases in Manhattan, but one outer-borough deal managed to crack the top 10: Standard Motor Products’ renewal of its 75,000-square-foot headquarters at RXR Realty’s 37-18 Northern Boulevard in Long Island City.

Just outside the top five was Empire State Realty Trust’s 60 East 42nd Street in Midtown, where iCapital expanded to 141,000 square feet, the fourth expansion for the fintech firm since it moved into the building in 2017, according to Commercial Observer.

Unsurprisingly, nearly all of the top leases in Manhattan, but one outer-borough deal managed to crack the top 10: Standard Motor Products’ renewal of its 75,000-square-foot headquarters at RXR Realty’s 37-18 Northern Boulevard in Long Island City.

One of the final deals in the top 10 was at 151 West 42nd Street in Times Square, which the Durst Organization brought to 96 percent occupancy when it signed Chicago Trading Company to 68,000 square feet. The trading firm signed a 15-year deal for two floors that were asking $110 per square foot.

Note: Top office leases and deal sheet data is manually collected from The Real Deal and third-party sources. It is not a comprehensive list. Please contact tips@therealdeal.com to notify of any missing deals.