{"id":184104,"date":"2026-04-03T02:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T02:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/184104\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T02:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T02:34:08","slug":"scarcity-at-the-top-sends-new-york-office-rents-beyond-320-a-square-foot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/184104\/","title":{"rendered":"Scarcity at the top sends New York office rents beyond $320 a square foot"},"content":{"rendered":"

The trend of deep\u2011pocketed office tenants paying ever\u2011higher rents in New York shows no sign of easing, as two recent deals have broken the threshold of $320 per square foot.<\/p>\n

A private international family office signed a 10-year lease averaging $327.50 per square foot at 9 W. 57th St., landlord Soloviev Group said. The rent not only marks a record for the building but is also thought to be the highest office rent ever recorded in New York, according to Soloviev, which said the prior citywide high was $320 per square foot.<\/p>\n

The unidentified tenant will occupy 5,063 square feet on the northwest corner of the 50th floor, featuring the tower’s best views of Central Park, Soloviev said. “The price speaks for itself,” Stefan Soloviev, chairman of Soloviev Group, said in a statement. The firm didn\u2019t respond to requests from CoStar News for additional details.<\/p>\n

A mile south, at SL Green Realty\u2019s trophy tower One Vanderbilt, artificial intelligence infrastructure firm Nscale recently signed a 7,204-square-foot, five-year lease with a starting rent of $320 per square foot, according to JLL data. The London-based, Nvidia-backed company was most recently valued at about $14.6 billion, following a $2 billion Series C funding round in March, a raise the firm described as the largest in European history.<\/p>\n

The latest leases follow a surge in top\u2011tier office deals last year, as tenants increasingly paid premium rents to secure scarce, high\u2011quality space. Manhattan logged 313 office leases starting at $100 per square foot or higher in 2025, including 28 deals that began at $200 per square foot or more, according to a JLL study.<\/a> One Vanderbilt topped the list, with the highest starting rent last year at $305 per square foot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just so little space available in the top trophy buildings. … Price is going to go up,\u201d Evan Margolin, a vice chairman in JLL\u2019s midtown office, said in an interview. \u201cIt\u2019s all the flight to quality that we\u2019ve been experiencing since people came back to the office. \u2026 There\u2019s a lot of demand and limited supply. People are willing to pay a premium. \u2026 Office space is an important talent attraction and retention tool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SL<\/p>\n

SL Green Realty\u2019s trophy tower One Vanderbilt stands out on Madison Avenue in midtown Manhattan. (CoStar)<\/p>\n

Manhattan\u2019s trophy office vacancy rate averaged 6.3% in the first quarter, according to JLL. By comparison, the city\u2019s overall office vacancy rate stands at about 13.3%, according to CoStar data.<\/p>\n

What tenants are paying for, Margolin said, is often less about the individual office footprint than about the broader building experience. One Vanderbilt, which opened during the pandemic in 2020, is directly connected to Grand Central Terminal and features a 30,000\u2011square\u2011foot amenity floor, Michelin\u2011starred dining by chef Daniel Boulud and the Summit observation deck.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, 9 W. 57th \u2014 a midtown tower built in 1974 and designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill \u2014 recently completed major upgrades to its lobby, elevators and building systems. It also added a 20,000\u2011square\u2011foot amenity floor with conference space, executive dining, a grab\u2011and\u2011go coffee bar and what Soloviev described as \u201cunparalleled Central Park views.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no building that has better exposure to Central Park\u201d than 9 W. 57th, Margolin said. \u201cIt has the best views of Central Park. \u2026 Many view Central Park as an amenity itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tower, known for its curved facade, counts Apollo Global Management and luxury brand Chanel among its tenants.<\/p>\n

Top end leads leasing wave\n<\/p>\n

Demand for high\u2011end office space has continued to lead Manhattan leasing activity this year, brokerage reports show. First\u2011quarter leasing volume totaled 12.4 million square feet, the strongest single quarter since the fourth quarter of 2019, according to a Savills study, which said activity was concentrated in Class A buildings. Trophy tower\u2011led rent growth also helped push Manhattan\u2019s overall asking rent up about 5% to $78.36 per square foot last quarter.<\/p>\n

As top-tier space tightens in midtown, some tenants seeking premium buildings are increasingly turning to Midtown South or Lower Manhattan.<\/p>\n

The $300 rent \u201cis a phenomenon that\u2019s going to be limited to the very best buildings,\u201d Margolin said. \u201cWe aren\u2019t seeing $300 rent downtown. [But] now we are seeing $100 rent in downtown for the very best buildings. \u2026 Downtown is always the beneficiary of a tight midtown market.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York isn\u2019t alone in seeing record pricing. Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco recently signed what\u2019s said to be a record-breaking deal of $300-plus per square foot. \u201cWe are already starting to see these types of deals in other gateway markets,\u201d Margolin said.<\/p>\n

To be sure, while headline rents are climbing, Manhattan\u2019s net effective office rents remain below pre-pandemic levels as landlords offer free rents and concessions, studies have found. Still, tightening supply at the top end of the market may begin to narrow that gap.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing concessions come down,\u201d Margolin told CoStar News. \u201cLandlords are attempting to give less free rent than they were getting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CBRE team of Howard Fiddle, John P. Maher, Gregg Rothkin, Alex Leopold and Tara Rhodes represented Soloviev Group in the 9 W. 57th St. transaction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The trend of deep\u2011pocketed office tenants paying ever\u2011higher rents in New York shows no sign of easing, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-184104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-manhattan","9":"tag-manhattan-headlines","10":"tag-manhattan-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184104","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=184104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}