{"id":219311,"date":"2026-05-04T15:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/219311\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T15:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:12:12","slug":"5-questions-commercial-observer-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/219311\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Questions \u2013 Commercial Observer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The wave of artificial intelligence company leases in New York City seems to be just getting started. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, AI companies doubled their 2025 footprint, according to JLL<\/a> data. And, just this week, Commercial Observer reported that Anthropic is considering a full-building, 465,630-square-foot lease<\/a> at AEW Capital Management\u2019s 330 Hudson Street.<\/p>\n

To support clients through this rapid influx, JLL formed its Tech Practice Group in 2025 and placed Jamie Katcher at the helm. Katcher cultivated his specialty in the city\u2019s technology sector during his 20-year run as a commercial broker at Cushman & Wakefield, followed by a short stint as head of the New York office of San Francisco-based tech brokerage Raise. JLL acquired Raise in 2024, and Katcher\u2019s tech expertise was put to good \u2013\u2013 and timely \u2013\u2013 use.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: New York\u2019s Renewed Fight Against Property Deed Theft Confronts Key Challenges<\/a><\/p>\n

Katcher recently sat down with CO last month to share his thoughts on how the AI boom is shaking out across the Big Apple.<\/p>\n

The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n

Commercial Observer: What is the purpose of JLL\u2019s Tech Practice Group?<\/p>\n

The thought process behind the group itself was to not only bring the brokers or the advisers in the room together, but it\u2019s also bringing other verticals within JLL that are supporting the tech sector, so that we can bring best practices to our client. The sector is moving at such a fast pace that the more knowledge we have within the room, not just focusing on one part of the process, gives our clients the best information out there.<\/p>\n

We pride ourselves on establishing relationships with the earliest stage companies. It\u2019s tech, it\u2019s AI, it\u2019s all kind of clustered together. We are spending a lot of time on these companies that are maybe just getting established, maybe as the company is going through their first raise, and through the evolution of their growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As these companies are growing, they are leaning on us for more information and more data points from a market standpoint that can help them make those decisions clearly. We take these companies from their earliest stage, and we grow with them. We are essentially wanting to be their partner throughout that trajectory. It\u2019s about feeding into the tech ecosystem, and it doesn\u2019t happen overnight.<\/p>\n

How has leasing activity changed within the AI tech sector?<\/p>\n

Jamie Katcher: In this really short period of time, they\u2019ve gone from this story of future demand to a very active and viable part of the leasing market. Even a year ago, the tours and the transactions that were happening in the market were not as spotlighted as they are today. I think, today, they\u2019re showing up in the regular pipelines, and they\u2019re showing up more competitive in the market.<\/p>\n

This shift is dictated by the numbers. It keeps changing every day, but let\u2019s say it\u2019s over 400,000 square feet in New York City today \u2013\u2013 that\u2019s nearly half of what we leased in 2025, and we\u2019re only kind of tipping into the second quarter.<\/p>\n

The activity is starting to outpace what we saw in previous years, and it\u2019s noticeable how frequently these companies are in the market, and how quickly they are moving to find those right opportunities.<\/p>\n

How does this affect the rest of the office market?<\/p>\n

As AI demand is tightening the market \u2013\u2013 and they\u2019re particularly focused on these higher-end or quality assets \u2013\u2013 the vacancy, obviously, is then declining. A lot of them would say that in years past they weren\u2019t so focused on some of the assets they were looking at now. They\u2019re more conscientious of the buildings they\u2019re looking at, because they might be having customers, or from a recruiting and retention standpoint. They\u2019re starting to look at the better buildings, which then just puts direct pressure on the quality of buildings that are left.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, the question that many are asking is how will AI demand impact the next growth cycle? As they start to take over different parts of the market, where do the rest of the people go? It becomes like this musical chairs concept.<\/p>\n

New York City has had waves of tech investment throughout the 25 years you\u2019ve been in the business. How is this moment playing out in comparison?<\/p>\n

This feels a little more grounded than prior waves. I think a lot of these companies are well capitalized, and that demand is really being driven from how they\u2019re adapting to AI. It\u2019s just not like one single trend that\u2019s happening. I think the markets are in a healthier position today from that. The higher end of the market, in particular, is being so supported right now by these other companies that are touching the AI sector.<\/p>\n

Most of the new demand is sitting in Midtown South, but, within Midtown South, you have pockets that are feeding more concentrations of activity than others, given the availability in that market and the quality of those assets. The real question becomes what does that next tier do to step up their game, to either lease or reposition their asset to be part of this conversation?<\/p>\n

Tell us about some of your recent deals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We just represented a company called Blue Fish AI, that we just headquartered. They moved to 315 Park Avenue South. We have been working with the founders for years. I worked with one of the founders at his prior company before that company was acquired. That\u2019s part of the strength of that tech ecosystem. We were working with them for so long that, as he was building this next company, we were kind of hand in hand, side by side with them, and we just secured the first phase of their headquarters.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re very active with early stage companies, too, that are coming out of stealth mode, that are very excited to be part of the tech ecosystem as well.<\/p>\n

Emily Davis can be reached at edavis@commercialobserver.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The wave of artificial intelligence company leases in New York City seems to be just getting started. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75969,86378,1286,9,11,10,49,51,50,41035,282],"class_list":["post-219311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-5-questions","tag-jamie-katcher-channel","tag-more","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-players","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219311","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=219311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}