SEE ALSO: Convene Hospitality CEO Ryan Simonetti On Big Funding and New Markets<\/a><\/p>\n According to Tighe, after the lease for Citadel\u2019s 200,000 square feet in the building was negotiated for considerably less than $300 per square foot, Citadel head Ken Griffin informed Tighe and L&L that as the building\u2019s anchor tenant, he wanted the option to occupy the top floor.<\/p>\n As occupancy was still years away, Tighe and L&L had to consult their crystal balls, metaphorically speaking, to determine the correct amount for the top-floor lease.<\/p>\n \u201c[L&L head] David Levinson and I discussed it,\u201d said Tighe. \u201cI said, \u2018Here\u2019s the issue. Whatever number we set the top floor for, everything underneath it is discounted off that number. The building will not be complete for another two years or so, and whatever number we\u2019re setting today becomes the baseline for discounting below it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Tighe therefore recommended that they ask for a number they believed would be \u201cthe ultimate number in the market by the time this building is completed.\u201d As $300 per square foot had yet to be achieved, that was the number Tighe recommended they ask for from Citadel.<\/p>\n Tighe said that Levinson asked how they would justify that number without a precedent.<\/p>\n \u201cKen Griffin is a man who\u2019s familiar with pricing and auctions,\u201d said Tighe. \u201cThere\u2019s an auction price where you\u2019re competing in the market, or there\u2019s a \u2018buy it now\u2019 price where you take it off market and say, \u2018If you want it without us going to market, this is the number we need.\u2019 If you consider 11,000 square feet at [the top floor] and roll it into the 230,000 square feet [throughout the rest of the building], which were nowhere near $300 a foot, the weighted average was relatively small. That\u2019s how we achieved the first $300 rent, because Ken Griffin said, \u2018I get it. I understand. I want it now. I\u2019m taking it off the market.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Tighe was well ahead of her time in breaking the $300 barrier, as 10 years later, the number of companies paying over $300 per square foot in Manhattan can still be counted on one hand.<\/p>\n That said, three of those leases have been signed since the start of 2025, according to CBRE.\u00a0<\/p>\n And with the April 2026 news<\/a> that the 1.6 million-square-foot 9 West 57th Street secured a lease for the record price of $340 per square foot \u2014 a 10-year lease to Gonzalo Hevia Baill\u00e8res, founder of AI logistics company Lok, for 5,063 square feet on the building\u2019s 50th floor that was widely misreported initially as $327.50 per square foot \u2014 the question arises of whether $300 per square foot is shifting from a shocking, record-setting event to something akin to a new normal for the market\u2019s top office product.<\/p>\n Michael Hershman, CEO of the building\u2019s owner, the Soloviev Group<\/a>, said that the company recently spent close to $50 million on an amenity floor, including a restaurant and lounge, a boardroom overlooking Central Park and a state-of-the-art health center. The building also has an art gallery that displays a rotating collection of works by artists such as Alberto Giacometti, Henri Matisse, Joan Mir\u00f3 and Roy Lichtenstein, to name just a few.\u00a0<\/p>\n All of this, combined with the building\u2019s iconic reputation; groundbreaking architectural design; Central Park views; tenants including Apollo Global Management, Chanel, Loews Corporation and the Qatar Investment Authority, plus its location on Billionaires\u2019 Row and the current positioning of the market made the building a natural choice to be first to achieve a taking rent of $340 per square foot.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it was first designed back in the early 1970s, it was one of the first curved buildings in Manhattan, and the architectural community said it was one of the ugliest buildings ever built,\u201d said Hershman. \u201cTen years later, it was winning awards for architectural design, which shows you the vision way back in 1970.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Hershman, market forces, including the stature of the building\u2019s tenants, made the $340 figure a natural for the space, and said the tenant offered no pushback to the amount.<\/p>\n \u201cSuccess breeds success,\u201d said Hershman. \u201c[Companies] want to be in a building where there are other like companies in the financial industry who are well known, with good reputations for integrity and transparency. You\u2019ll often find them on our amenity floor, having coffee or a cocktail and talking business. It\u2019s a wonderful way for them to network.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to 9 West 57th Street and 425 Park Avenue, $300-per-square-foot taking rents or higher can also be found at SL Green\u2019s One Vanderbilt, with RFR\u2019s Seagram Building not far behind<\/a>.<\/p>\n Given how quickly rents have risen over the past two decades \u2014 global financial crises and pandemics notwithstanding \u2014 and then accounting for the current growing demand for the ultimate in trophy office space, it\u2019s worth considering how we got here in order to determine the timing and amount of the next major threshold.<\/p>\n According to data from CBRE going back to 2007, the $100 to $149 range has been, and remains, the standard for office space in Manhattan.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2007, the borough saw 90 deals in that range, alongside 16 deals that edged up into the $150 to $199 range, which then represented the top of the market. The following year \u2014 right before the economy came tumbling down \u2014 saw 10 additional deals in the higher range, with two deals bursting through the $200-per-square-foot barrier.<\/p>\n Placing the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) nightmare of the next five years aside, 2014 was the first year post-GFC to see new deals break into that range.\u00a0<\/p>\n But apart from two more in 2016, New York City didn\u2019t come close to that amount again until 2021 \u2014 just five years ago \u2014 when, on top of 25 deals in the $150 to $199 range, five deals signed for over $200 per square foot.<\/p>\n Even with the ongoing uncertainty about the effect of work from home and hybrid work on the office market, 2022 became the strongest year for office deals since before 2007, with 15 deals in the $150 to $199 range, 15 more from $200 and $299, and the first New York deal over $300 per square foot when Citadel took occupancy of the top floor at 425 Park Avenue, according to Tighe.<\/p>\n Since then, 2025 far eclipsed 2022 in $100-plus deals, including 38 from $150 to $199, 21 from $200 to $299, and one more \u2014 the first since 2022 \u2014 over $300. 2026 is currently on a strong pace, including, in a first for New York City, two deals (so far) over $300 a square foot in one year, according to CBRE.<\/p>\n While its status as a rarity is dissipating, the $300-per-square-foot mark will clearly represent the best of the best for some time.<\/p>\n \u201cLeases surpassing $300 per square foot are beginning to establish the upper limit of Manhattan\u2019s office market, but they remain highly concentrated at the very top in both building quality and location. These are outliers, not the baseline,\u201d Victor Rodriguez, senior director of market analytics for CoStar Group, said in an email to Commercial Observer, referring to pricier lease terms being generally reserved for a building\u2019s upper floors.\u00a0<\/p>\n A higher perch is just one potentially limiting circumstance surrounding the achievement of $300-plus rents.<\/p>\n Tighe notes that rents at the highest level are currently being achieved only for small spaces.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing with $300 and above is 5,000-square-foot units, which means if you are taking a small space like that, the per-square-foot rent is almost irrelevant,\u201d said Tighe. \u201cYou\u2019re looking at what the annual rent is, and that\u2019s a very different thing than entering an environment where a sizable tenant is taking a space that\u2019s $200-plus a square foot.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, falling trophy supply has helped make $300-plus rents more achievable. Rodriguez said that over the past four years, trophy office availability in Manhattan has dropped from 18.4 percent to 8.3 percent. In the Plaza District, that number is just 3.3 percent.<\/p>\n With supply dropping and price pressure increasing, every threshold reached and maintained serves as a reset of sorts, teeing up expectations for the next record to fall.<\/p>\n![\"Mary](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/031725_ComObs_MaryATighe_007_HiRes-WEB.jpg\" "\\"$300")
Mary Ann Tighe. PHOTO: Evelyn Freja\/for Commercial Observer<\/p>\n