Manhattan projects dominate office construction pipeline

Borough home to 13M sf under development in Q1

From left: Vornado Realty Trust's Steve Roth with 2 Pennsylvania Plaza and Brookfield's Bruce Flatt with Two Manhattan West
From left: Vornado Realty Trust's Steve Roth with 2 Pennsylvania Plaza and Brookfield's Bruce Flatt with Two Manhattan West (Two Manhattan West , Vornado Realty Trust, Getty, Brookfield)

Want to see where the country’s biggest office projects are being delivered this year? Go to Manhattan.

The New York City borough boasts the five largest office developments expected to be delivered this year, according to a report from CommercialCafe. The report is based on CommercialEdge data compiled towards the end of January.

The largest project is Brookfield’s Two Manhattan West, which is expected to deliver 2 million square feet in the fourth quarter. The 58-story property on the Far West Side already has numerous tenants lined up and is 80 percent leased to tenants including law firm Crowell & Moring, which signed in December for 71,000 square feet.

Second place among expected deliveries this year is Vornado Realty Trust’s 2 Penn, also anticipated for the fourth quarter. A quarter of the 1.6 million-square-foot redevelopment will be occupied by MSG Entertainment, which signed a 428,000-square-foot lease to keep its corporate headquarters in place.

The fourth quarter is also expected to bring completion of the 1.4 million-square-foot One Madison Avenue. The SL Green development recently landed chef Daniel Boulud to spearhead spaces at the Midtown South tower, which occupies a full-block site between Park and Madison Avenues, plus East 23rd and East 24th Streets.

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Can’t wait for the fourth quarter for a big office delivery? The “Googleplex” at 550 Washington Street is expected to arrive in the second quarter, even as the company evaluates its office needs. The tech giant plunked down $2.1 billion to buy the site in 2021 and is building it out to 1.3 million square feet.

Rounding out the top five is the Terminal Warehouse development in West Chelsea.L&L Holding Company and Columbia Property Trust secured a $1.25 billion construction loan in 2021 for the 1.3 million-square-foot project, which is expected to be delivered in the third quarter.

Other office projects ranking in the top 10 include a dual phase of Amazon’s HQ2 in Arlington, Virginia, the Salesforce Tower in Chicago, the redevelopment of One Post Office Square in Boston, Duke Energy Plaza in Charlotte and the 555 Tower in Bellevue, Washington. The project at 424 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan also ranked in the top 20.

Overall, 13 million square feet of office construction is taking place in the first quarter in Manhattan — the most among top markets, narrowly outpacing Boston and Atlanta. Across 25 major markets, the sector has 135 million square feet under construction.

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