AI Giant Anthropic Seeks More Office Space in NYC

Artificial intelligence companies were one of the pacers of Manhattan’s office leasing recovery last year. They’re active again to start the year and giant Anthropic plans to join the fun.

The startup behind the Claude chatbot is looking for between 250,000 and 450,000 square feet for offices in Manhattan, Bloomberg reported. Even at the low end of the range, a lease of that size would represent a significant expansion from the 10,000 to 20,000 square feet it occupies at 155 Sixth Avenue, according to CompStak; that lease is expiring this year.

Anthropic declined to comment to the publication.

The company has shown little hesitance to make moves on the office front. In the fall, Anthropic signed a lease for approximately 100,000 square feet of office space at 505 Howard Street in downtown San Francisco, across the street from its headquarters.

The lease came shortly after a $13 billion investment fundraise in September.

And while the AI sector is transforming San Francisco’s office market, tenants haven’t been shy about embracing space in New York City, either.

At the start of this month, AI voice analytics company Rilla inked a 57,000-square-foot lease at Global Holdings’ 25 Kent in one of the borough’s biggest office deals of the past year. The company will occupy the entire eighth-floor penthouse, along with nearly 4,000 square feet of private outdoor space, according to the landlord.

And just this week, multifamily AI firm EliseAI signed a 10-year lease for 109,000 square feet at the Chetrit Organization’s 401 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. The AI firm, which focuses on housing and healthcare, will occupy approximately half the building as it relocates from 33 East 33rd Street.

Manhattan office leasing reached pre-pandemic levels in the fourth quarter, posting its best quarter since late 2019 with 11.9 million square feet in leases, according to Colliers. That helped contribute to a yearly total of nearly 42 million square feet for the highest mark since 2019.

— Holden Walter-Warner