Manhattan Office Market Mounts a Comeback

After years of grim headlines about remote work decimating demand, Manhattan’s office market is flipping the script.

April capped off a hot streak in the borough with 3.38 million square feet of office space leased — up 23 percent year-over-year, and pushing 2025 toward what could be the best leasing year since 2000.

The recovery has been driven by a one-two punch of tightening availability and heavyweight tenants making big bets. In April, every one of the top five leases was a new deal — not just renewals or expansions.

Amazon led the charge with a 330,000-square-foot lease at 10 Bryant Park and an acquisition of 522 Fifth Avenue — part of its broader real estate push that began with the $1.15 billion purchase of the former Lord & Taylor building.

Other major moves included Goodwin Procter’s 250,000-square-foot lease at 200 Fifth Avenue and Apollo Global Management taking 100,000 square feet at 590 Madison Avenue — a property now in the final bidding stages of what could become Manhattan’s first billion-dollar office sale since 2022. Deloitte made the biggest splash, locking down 800,000 square feet at 70 Hudson Yards, which hasn’t even broken ground.

First quarter leasing hit 12.2 million square feet, the strongest period since 2019, according to Savills. Sixteen of those deals were for over 100,000 square feet, showing that large, committed occupiers are back in force. Sublease availability is down for the seventh straight month, and Class A space is tightening, particularly in Midtown and Hudson Yards.

Several forces are fueling the rebound.

Return-to-office momentum is gaining real traction. Work-in-office rates in Manhattan have reached 76 percent of pre-pandemic levels, according to The Partnership for New York City, and one in four employers say they’ll require more in-office presence over the next year. Real estate firms are already leading the pack with 85 percent office attendance, followed by law and financial services.

At the same time, demand is sharpening for high-end space. Trophy and Class A+ buildings are commanding rents of $160 per square foot, with some deals surpassing $200 in Hudson Yards and the Plaza District, while older stock continues to lag.

(This will actually be the topic of a panel discussion at our forum in New York on May 7 — make sure you get tickets)

There’s also capital confidence returning to the sector. March’s top two loans in NYC were for office properties, including $645 million to refinance Milstein’s revamped 22 Vanderbilt. Blackstone is also circling 590 Madison, signaling a potential return to office after a prolonged retreat.

Uncertainty remains — Trump’s tariffs could rattle markets, and nationally, office performance is still uneven. San Francisco continues to struggle with vacancy rates hovering near 30 percent, but a recent $111 million dollar deal marked the city’s largest post-pandemic office sale to date and signaled renewed interest in the sector. Austin’s office market is also grappling with high vacancy rates, which hit over 25 percent in the first quarter, but some investors view the downturn as a buying opportunity.

But for now, New York’s office market is moving in the right direction. With major tenants doubling down on high-quality space and institutional capital showing signs of thaw, the narrative in Midtown and beyond is shifting.

Outside of Manhattan’s office comeback, there was plenty of news this week. We map out Trump’s inner circle in Palm Beach, a judge set the trial date for Ohad Fisherman, an alleged accomplice of the Alexanders, and former Meridian brokers go after their old firm.

Miami-Dade judge sets trial for Ohad Fisherman, Alexanders in sexual battery case

A Miami-Dade judge set the trial date for Ohad Fisherman, an alleged accomplice of Oren Alexander and his twin brother, Alon, in a sexual battery case prosecutors unveiled in December. The case is separate from the federal charges brought by the Southern District of New York against Oren, Alon and Tal. Oren is also facing a separate state sexual battery charge.

Mapping the players in Trump’s Palm Beach orbit

Palm Beach is 998 miles from Washington, D.C., but the island exerts unprecedented influence on the goings-on in the nation’s capital. The Florida enclave, once a sleepy town unfamiliar to most Americans, is President Donald Trump’s home away from home. Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club and residence on the island, is the center of his political universe. Where politicos, CEOs and donors stay in relation to the club clarifies who circles in Trump’s orbit — and how closely — without the help of a powerful telescope.

Fired Meridian brokers blast “fire sale” of scandal-plagued mortgage business

Two former Meridian brokers are suing their former firm over the $425 million sale of its mortgage business and putting the company’s “unregulated culture” on blast. Ari Adlerstein and Josh Simpson allege that Meridian sold NewPoint Capital — holder of a coveted Fannie and Freddie lending license — at “fire-sale” prices after the brokerage was blacklisted by the agencies amid a mortgage fraud scandal.

Waterfront Naples estate sells for $225M, marking second-highest US home sale

The billionaire DeGroote family sold their waterfront Naples estate for $225 million, marking the second-highest priced home sale in the country. The sale, to a land trust that conceals the identity of the buyer, is a record for home sales in Florida, surpassing Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison’s $173 million purchase of a Manalapan estate in 2022.

Resi’s monopolistic dreams

Residential real estate is thinking big again. Weathered by years of a stalled housing market and high mortgage rates, brokerages, mortgage companies and other residential firms have been pushed to join forces or perish. But with bigger deals come antitrust concerns. Pressure on the industry isn’t new: The Department of Justice is less than a year off securing record settlements from residential players and the industry’s top authority. But how big can the consolidation wave get before drawing federal action?

United Center redevelopment could re-ignite an old turf war

A $7 billion redevelopment plan for Chicago’s United Center could spark a new clash over zoning and re-ignite an old turf war. The mega-project is poised to transform the area, but just north of the arena lies the Kinzie Corridor, a protected industrial zone backed by powerful allies at City Hall that some commercial real estate players see as a potential extension of the buzzy Fulton Market neighborhood.

California landlords: “Nice try” after rent control bill meets sudden death

A bill that would have tightened price controls on rental housing in California and expanded eviction protections died suddenly Tuesday after landlords and pro-housing allies mounted a furious attack in Sacramento. Assemblymember Ash Kalra, a Democrat from San Jose, introduced Assembly Bill 1157 in February to little fanfare with a coalition of labor and tenant groups as co-sponsors. Kalra pitched the draft legislation as a stopgap against loopholes in the landmark package of tenant protections state lawmakers passed in 2019.