{"id":330491,"date":"2026-08-26T20:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T20:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/330491\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T20:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T20:58:08","slug":"ai-startup-thinking-machines-lab-takes-22k-sf-at-79-fifth-avenue-for-first-nyc-office-commercial-observer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/330491\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Startup Thinking Machines Lab Takes 22K SF at 79 Fifth Avenue for First NYC Office \u2013 Commercial Observer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Artificial intelligence research startup <a href=\"https:\/\/commercialobserver.com\/company\/thinking-machines-lab\/\" title=\"Thinking Machines Lab\" class=\"company-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Thinking Machines Lab<\/a> is coming to New York.<\/p>\n<p>Just a year and a half after launching in San Francisco, the company has inked a 21,500-square-foot lease at <a href=\"https:\/\/commercialobserver.com\/company\/kalimian-properties\/\" title=\"Kalimian Properties\" class=\"company-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kalimian Properties<\/a>\u2019 79 Fifth Avenue just one block west of Union Square, Commercial Observer has learned.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>SEE ALSO: <a href=\"https:\/\/commercialobserver.com\/?p=577707&amp;preview=true&amp;preview_id=577707\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arca Financial Group Takes 8K SF at Moinian\u2019s 60 Madison Avenue<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but asking rents in the 18-story office building hover slightly above $100 per square foot, according to a source familiar with the deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thinking Machines Lab was founded in early 2025 by Mira Murati, former chief technology officer at <a href=\"https:\/\/commercialobserver.com\/company\/openai\/\" title=\"OpenAI\" class=\"company-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">OpenAI<\/a>, to design specialized AI models and create tools for researchers and businesses to train their own models. The company achieved a $12 billion valuation <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/technology\/mira-muratis-ai-startup-thinking-machines-raises-2-billion-a16z-led-round-2025-07-15\/\">in July 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/commercialobserver.com\/company\/jll\/\" title=\"JLL\" class=\"company-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">JLL<\/a>\u2019s Justin Haber and Kyle Riker negotiated the lease on behalf of the tenant, while <a href=\"https:\/\/commercialobserver.com\/company\/newmark\/\" title=\"Newmark\" class=\"company-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Newmark<\/a>\u2019s David Falk, Daniel Levine and Dylan Weisman represented the landlord.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for JLL confirmed the lease but declined to comment on the deal. The team at Newmark did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Thinking Machines Lab\u2019s new East Coast home will occupy the entire fourth floor of 79 Fifth Avenue. The building between East 15th and East 16th streets is also home to <a href=\"https:\/\/commercialobserver.com\/2017\/01\/consulting-company-leases-43k-sf-in-flatiron-district\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">consulting company<\/a> Capgemini America, streaming giant Hulu, and The New School. It is also home to <a href=\"https:\/\/commercialobserver.com\/2025\/07\/free-people-lease-union-square\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fashion retailer<\/a> Free People on the ground floor.<\/p>\n<p>Kalimian Properties\u2019 Albert Kalimian did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the deal.<\/p>\n<p>Emily Davis can be reached at <a href=\"https:\/\/commercialobserver.com\/2026\/08\/thinking-machines-lab-79-fifth-avenue-lease\/mailto:edavis@commercialobserver.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">edavis@commercialobserver.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Artificial intelligence research startup Thinking Machines Lab is coming to New York. Just a year and a half&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[124441,3624,70685,26047,124442,124443,124444,2361,124445,9,11,10,124440],"class_list":["post-330491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-albert-kalimian","tag-channel","tag-daniel-levine","tag-david-falk","tag-dylan-weisman","tag-justin-haber","tag-kyle-riker","tag-leases","tag-mira-murati","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-office-leases-79-fifth-avenue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330491","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=330491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}