{"id":135763,"date":"2026-02-17T02:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T02:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/135763\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T02:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T02:06:08","slug":"manhattans-lack-of-big-office-blocks-forcing-companies-to-start-searching-for-space-sooner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/135763\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhattan’s Lack Of Big Office Blocks Forcing Companies To Start Searching For Space Sooner"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a time not that long ago when Manhattan was\u00a0awash in towers with multiple empty floors<\/a> in need of a tenant. Those days are gone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, companies with large office footprints\u00a0are starting\u00a0their\u00a0renewal or relocation decisions\u00a0five or more years\u00a0before their leases expire\u00a0to ensure they have some top-tier options to choose from.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is probably the frothiest time of lack of supply,\u201d JLL Vice Chairman Mitch Konsker<\/a>\u00a0said. \u201cI would probably say, in my 43-year career, it’s happened two or three times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"\/<\/p>\n

Of the 35.1M SF of NYC office leases tracked by JLL in 2025, 43.8%\u00a0were signed by companies taking 100K SF or more. Big-block leasing was an even greater share of the market when there were fewer deals overall in 2024, at 53.8%, according to JLL data provided\u00a0to\u00a0Bisnow.<\/p>\n

Much of that demand was concentrated in Manhattan’s trophy buildings<\/a>, which ended the year with a 3.7% availability rate, according to Newmark<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no 100K SF blocks in what’s considered the best of the best part of the market,\u201d\u00a0SL Green<\/a>\u00a0Director of Leasing\u00a0Steven Durels<\/a>\u00a0said last month on an earnings call.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The dynamic sits in stark contrast to the rest of the country’s office markets, where tenants by and large have the upper hand. Vacancy was just shy of 15% in Manhattan at the end of 2025, according to Newmark, the\u00a0lowest\u00a0of any major market. The national vacancy rate\u00a0was 20.4%, and it was north of 25% in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.<\/p>\n

The dearth of high-quality Manhattan office space has led to tenants signing substantial renewals and expansions in Manhattan office towers in recent months: Eight of the 10 largest leases signed in the fourth quarter fit into those categories, according to Savills<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Law, finance, banking and tech tenants \u2014\u00a0like Bloomberg, which signed a 498K SF expansion<\/a> at Global Holdings\u2019 120 Park Ave. last year, five years ahead of its expiration \u2014 are driving most of the demand for best-in-class space, brokers said.<\/p>\n

Guggenheim Partners locked down a\u00a0360K SF renewal and expansion<\/a>\u00a0at 330 Madison Ave. last year, a full three years before the 15-year lease\u00a0it signed in 2013<\/a> was set to expire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tenants that are in growth mode, and law firms in particular, right now are one of the drivers behind what is making the engine go in New York City,\u201d Cushman & Wakefield<\/a>\u00a0Chairman Bruce Mosler<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

In fact, space in best-in-class offices for those tenants\u2019 requirements is so tight that landlords are shuffling tenants around to create larger blocks, Mosler said. For high-profile owners of some of the city\u2019s trophy and Class-A space, limited availability presents a new opportunity.<\/p>\n

Vornado<\/a> is working to\u00a0create a\u00a0380K SF block at its Penn 1 tower, which is 89% leased, up to a 350K SF block at Penn 2, and as much as 400K SF at 1290 Sixth Ave. because of the \u201cshortage\u201d of large contiguous spaces, CEO\u00a0Steve Roth<\/a> said during\u00a0his\u00a0company\u2019s earnings call on Feb. 10.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are making available to the marketplace what our clients need and want,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"\/<\/p>\n

\n Courtesy of Volley Studio\n <\/p>\n

\n A rendering of BXP’s 343 Madison Ave., where the developer has already landed an anchor tenant despite the property’s 2029 delivery date.\n <\/p>\n

The\u00a0competition for\u00a0dwindling\u00a0supply at the top of the market has convinced the city’s largest commercial landlords to start building new skyscrapers, confident that tenants will pay $200 per SF or more to ensure their spot.<\/p>\n

Investment and insurance firm Starr signed for 275K SF at BXP<\/a>\u2019s planned 343 Madison Ave<\/a>. tower last month,\u00a0even though\u00a0the developer won\u2019t finish building the property until 2029 at the earliest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Deloitte\u00a0last year agreed to\u00a0an 800K SF lease at\u00a070 Hudson Yards<\/a>,\u00a0four years before its 430K SF lease at 30 Rockefeller Center expires. Co-developers The Related Cos<\/a>.,\u00a0Oxford Properties<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Kuwait Investment Authority plan to deliver the $2.5B tower\u00a0in late 2028<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Starr\u00a0will pay $1.3B over its 20-year lease at 343 Madison, while Deloitte agreed to pay $2.6B for its 800K SF spread at 70 Hudson Yards, according to CompStak<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue is that we don’t have new products on spec,\u201d Konsker said. \u201cThey have no choice but to look early.\u201d<\/p>\n

SL Green acquired the development site at 346 Madison Ave. last year and immediately set out to replace it with a boutique office building.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy only wish is that we had the building built and ready to go today,\u201d Durels\u00a0said during the earnings call.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, Vornado acquired 623 Fifth Ave., an office building previous owner Charles Cohen\u00a0emptied out for a planned condo conversion.\u00a0The REIT\u00a0plans to spend $450M upgrading the office space<\/a>, betting that a renovation \u2014 expected to wrap up by the end of 2027 \u2014 can capture some tenants\u00a0that can’t wait until 2029 for a large block to open up.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York is now on the foothills of the best landlord’s market in\u00a020 years,\u201d Roth said last week. \u201cWe believe this landlord’s market in Manhattan will continue to tighten and last for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a time not that long ago when Manhattan was\u00a0awash in towers with multiple empty floors in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[57662,36693,34703,26045,1499,3272,36686,1505,75,84,83,6979,34670,9,24,63,57660,6980,5817,57661,4316],"class_list":{"0":"post-135763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-343-madison","9":"tag-570-fifth-ave","10":"tag-70-hudson-yards","11":"tag-bruce-mosler","12":"tag-bxp","13":"tag-cushman-wakefield","14":"tag-extell-development","15":"tag-jll","16":"tag-manhattan","17":"tag-manhattan-headlines","18":"tag-manhattan-news","19":"tag-manhattan-office","20":"tag-mitch-konsker","21":"tag-new-york","22":"tag-new-york-city","23":"tag-nyc","24":"tag-oxford-properties","25":"tag-related-cos","26":"tag-sl-green-realty","27":"tag-trophy-office","28":"tag-vornado-realty-trust"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}