Law firms topped the list of January’s biggest office leases in NYC

After a slow end to the year, the NYC office leasing scene is back up to speed

From left: 330 Madison Avenue, 66 Hudson Boulevard and 599 Lexington Avenue (Credit: Google Maps)
From left: 330 Madison Avenue, 66 Hudson Boulevard and 599 Lexington Avenue (Credit: Google Maps)

New York City’s office leasing scene took a bit of a dip in December but got right back up to speed in the first month of the new year. Sizable leases from Amazon and a trio of law firms brought the city’s top 10 office leasing scene back up to the volumes it was seeing in October and November.

The total square footage of January’ top 10 office leases made public comes to 2.2 million square feet, up 133 percent from December’s total and 47 percent from the 10 largest in January 2019.

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437 Madison Avenue, 50 Hudson Yards, and 1 New York Plaza (Credit: 437 Madison, Hudson Yards, Wikipedia)
Commercial
New York
Manhattan office leasing just had its most active year since 2001

1. Debevoise & Plimpton, 66 Hudson Boulevard, Hudson Yards – 530,000 square feet
The law firm inked a lease that brought the Tishman Speyer-owned development to more than half occupancy. Debevoise & Plimpton is taking floors 40 to 52, and joins anchor tenant Pfizer and AllianceBernstein at the new building. The deal comes after reports that the law firm was nearing a lease across the street, at the Related Companies’ 50 Hudson Yards.

2. Amazon, 656 Gulf Avenue, Bulls Head – 450,000 square feet
The e-retailer inked a massive lease for warehouse space next to the distribution center it opened in 2017. The building’s landlord is Matrix Development Group. The new warehouse will be used for last-mile deliveries and is expected to be up and running by the summer.
Summer.

3. Shearman & Sterling, 599 Lexington Avenue, Plaza District – 338,000 square feet
The second law firm to appear on this list renewed its decades-old lease in the Boston Properties-owned building for another 20 years. The law firm occupies 13 of the building’s 47 floors. Renovations on the space are set to begin this summer.

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4. JLL, 330 Madison Avenue, Grand Central – 165,000 square feet
After merging with brokerage HFF, the real estate brokerage renewed and expanded its lease, doubling its space in the building. JLL represented its own interest in the transaction, as well as that of the landlord, Munich Re. Asking rent in the building is reportedly close to $70 a square foot.

5. Cantor Fitzgerald, 110 East 59th Street, Plaza District – 151,890 square feet
The financial services firm renewed its lease for another 16 years. Neil Goldmacher, Jared Horowitz and Jason Perla of Newmark Knight Frank represented the tenant while Brett Greenberg and Fran Delgorio of Jack Resnick & Sons represented the landlord in-house.

6. City Harvest, 150 52nd Street, Sunset Park – 150,000 square feet
The food rescue organization is getting a new headquarters. Rob Kossar, Paul Mas, Adam Citron and Ellen Herman of JLL represented the tenant while Leslie Lann of JLL represented the landlord, DH Property Holdings. The lease was finalized just before Prologis went into contract to purchase the property from GH Property Holdings.

7. McLaughlin & Stern, 260 Madison Avenue, Garment District – 112,000 square feet
The 122-year-old law firm renewed its 12-year lease at the Sapir Organization-owned tower. The space is also set to undergo immediate renovations. Mike Gottlieb of Avison Young represented the tenant while Husein Sonara of Sapir Organization represented the landlord in-house.

8. Refinitiv, 28 Liberty Street, Financial District – 108,917 square feet
The fintech firm inked a 15-year lease at Fosun International’s recently renovated 60-story tower. Robert Martin and T.J. Hochanadel of JLL represented the tenant while John Wheeler, Peter Riguardi, Mitch Konsker, Dan Turkewitz and Eliza Akers of JLL represented the landlord, Fosun International. Asking rents were in the upper $70s. Fosun has seen several big new leases at the tower, which saw the addition of 200,000 square feet of retail space and a restaurant on the 60th floor.

9. Thornton Tomasetti, 120 Broadway, Financial District – 102,440 square feet
The engineering firm inked a 15-year lease, consolidating two offices. Mary Ann Tighe, Tim Dempsey, Steve Eynon, Brendan Herlihy and Marlee Teplitzky of CBRE represented the tenant while Joseph Artusa of Silverstein Properties represented the landlord in-house.

10. Northwestern Mutual, 200 Liberty Street, Battery Park City – 91,217 square feet
The financial security company inked a lease at the 39-story office building. Scott Vinett, Chris Joyner and Andrew Hegmann of JLL; Fischer & Company represented the tenant while Mikael Nahmias, Paul Glickman and John Wheeler of JLL represented the landlord, Brookfield Properties.

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