Manhattan Office Tenants Break Price Per Square Foot Records

The recovery of Manhattan’s office market remains uneven, but those with the most high-end properties enjoyed a record year of triple-digit leases.

There were 28 leases signed for at least $200 per square foot last year, the New York Post reported. That represented the most recorded deals at that threshold, according to JLL’s “Analysis of Top Tier Transactions” report.

The history doesn’t end there. The 212 deals signed for at least $100 per square foot also represented a high for the market. They spanned 9.8 million square feet, outpacing 2019’s record by a handy 1 million square feet and last year’s count by more than 4 million square feet.

There were 35 triple-digit leases spanning at least 50,000 square feet and 11 spanning at least 200,000 square feet, though supply is “limited and shrinking” for trophy office spaces, according to JLL.

JLL vice chair Cynthia Wasserberger told the Post that “people aren’t blinking” at $200-plus rents anymore; they accounted for nearly 600,000 square feet leased last year.

While JLL didn’t confirm specific deals, there are hints regarding the big winners of the year. RFR Holdings’ Seagram Building counted 12 triple-digit rent leases last year, including nine that were at least $200 per square foot. Steve Roth’s Vornado Realty Trust, meanwhile, scored 19 triple-digit leases, most among any office landlord in the borough.

As for who is signing these deals, financial service firms rise to the top. They accounted for 40 percent of all the leases signed in Manhattan last year, according to JLL, and nearly two-thirds of the triple-digit deals.

Overall, tenants signed leases for 30.2 million square feet last year, the first time the 30-million-square-foot plateau has been broken since 2018. But the vacancy rate is still hovering around a historic high at 18 percent.

— Holden Walter-Warner