In one of just a handful of marquee office-leasing deals since the pandemic hit New York, financial services firm Raymond James is taking 160,000 square feet at 320 Park Avenue.
Raymond James, headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, is consolidating from smaller locations in Manhattan, the New York Post reported. The 730,000-square-foot Midtown tower is owned by Mutual of America, which according to the Post had recently put some of its space up for sublease.
The deal appears to be the largest new office lease since TikTok, a subsidiary of Chinese firm ByteDance, signed for 232,000 square feet at the Durst Organization’s One Five One (formerly Four Times Square) in May. The U.S. has considered a ban on TikTok, leading observers to ask questions about the viability of that deal.
Manhattan office leasing activity in the second quarter of 2020 totaled just 3.18 million square feet, according to Colliers International. That’s half what it was in the prior quarter and down 72 percent year over year. The total represented the slowest quarter for office leasing since 2009. [NYP] — TRD Staff