Durst, Silverstein Score World Trade Center Leases

Two of the major landlords within the World Trade Center scored significant office leases in recent days.

Art investment company Masterworks and rideshare operator Uber signed deals for more than 30,000 square feet each in the Financial District, the New York Business Journal reported. Both of the leases were signed last month and originally disclosed in a CBRE report.

Masterworks agreed to lease 37,000 square feet on the 57th Floor of 1 World Trade Center, which is owned by the Durst Organization and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The deal is in the form of a sublease from mortgage lender Network Capital and comes as Masterworks looks to exit its office space at Brookfield Properties’ 225 Liberty Street.

At 3 World Trade Center, Uber took an additional 44,000 square feet at the Silverstein Properties building. The rideshare company already occupies 300,000 square feet, which it started to utilize in 2019.

But by the next year, during the height of the pandemic, Uber reversed course and reportedly offered about 80,000 square feet for sublease.

Financial details of the leases were not disclosed.

February was a major month for office leases in Lower Manhattan. Tenants leased 864,000 square feet in the district in February, according to CBRE, more than doubling the leasing volume in the area for the entire fourth quarter.

On the whole, Manhattan’s office leasing volume was down about 13 percent month-over-month in February to 3.2 million square feet after a big January, according to a monthly Colliers report. Leasing velocity increased by 38 percent year-over-year and demand was 19 percent above the ten-year monthly average.

The availability rate tightened to the lowest level since March 2021, while sublet availability decreased to its lowest level since September 2020.

— Holden Walter-Warner