NYC high-end office market marks record year for new rents topping $200 per square foot

Move over, C-Note – Manhattan’s high-end office market’s new exclusive club has an admission fee of $200 per square foot.

A record 28 new leases were made at rents above $200 per square foot in 2024, The Post has learned.
The agreements represented the highest level of high level.

Meanwhile, there were also a record 212 deals signed for at least $100 per square foot, according to a stunning new report from JLL.

JLL’s report highlighted a year of leasing in Manhattan that saw 30.2 million square feet in total space being snapped up – 19.4% more than 2023 and the first time the 30 million mark was hit since 2018.

“Top market rent represented almost a third of the entire market for 2024,” marveled JLL vice president Cynthia Wasserberger, head of a JLL team that shared a “Top-Level Transaction Analysis” with The Post .

“When we develop back into the $200+ market, people are no longer batting an eye at these rentals. We saw nearly 600,000 square feet of that” in 2024, Wasserberger said.

The largest, top $100 class of 2024 accounted for an unprecedented 9.8 million square feet, as measured by JLL, handily beating the previous high of 8.8 million square feet in 2019. ancient.

An area of ​​more than 5.6 million square feet reached $100 more in 2023.

Although JLL did not name any tenants in its survey and later declined to name any when The Post asked about them, market sources revealed that two major closings ended the year with a bang on New Year’s Eve.
Stonepeak, which expanded from 55 Hudson Yards, and Visa each took 150,000 square feet of Warner Brothers Discovery subleases at rents above $100 per square foot.

“Visa and Stonepeak were eager to sign on at 30 Hudson Yards by the end of the year,” an insider told The Post. “Because if they didn’t, they knew there was no shortage of others ready and willing to step in.”

No one at CBRE, which worked on both deals, was able to comment due to strict non-disclosure agreements.

The gold standard transactions come as the Manhattan stock market slowly and unevenly recovers from the pandemic.

Although JLL said the “work-from-home dynamic is firmly in the rearview mirror,” overall Manhattan availability stands at about 18% despite much lower vacancy rates on key corridors like Park and Sixth streets .

This of course means that vacancies are much higher in other countries. But the owners of prime properties are sitting pretty.

Park Avenue boasted the highest dollar deals, 52, as well as four of the 10 largest leases by size, JLL found. The Seagram Building had the highest deals with 12, nine of which were for $200 or more.
Vornado Realty Trust earned bragging rights for the most C-Note deals — 19 of them totaling over 1.361 million square feet.

The potentially most lucrative deal on a per-square-foot basis was at SL Green’s One Vanderbilt, where law firm McDermott, Will & Emery paid $280 PSF for a top-floor suite, sources told The Post.
Wasserberger declined to confirm or deny.

Resurgent financial services claimed 12.2 million square feet, or nearly 40% of all 2024 deals — as well as 64% of Class C notes.

JLL cited “an almost insatiable demand for quality office space” from Wall Street – “which has rebounded dramatically” after a period of dominance by tech firms.

Others in the $200-plus class were, according to market sources, Tikehau Capital and Platinum Equity at 9 West 57th St.; Patient Square Capital in the GM Building; Leerink Partners and Freestone Grove Partners in the Seagram Building; and Westpac Advisers at Lever House.

In the $100 class, the largest in size appears to be Blackstone’s upcoming renovation and expansion at Rudin’s 345 Park Avenue.

Although JLL again would not identify the tenant, its list of largest transactions was topped by a single commitment, 1.056 million square feet there. It sounds like the 1.06 million-square-foot deal from Stephen Schwarzman’s firm that the Commercial Observer reported last summer.

C-Note rents used to be much lower, averaging just 110 a year before the pandemic — most in “boutique” spaces under 10,000 square feet.

JLL’s 2024 report included 35 leases over 50,000 square feet and 11 over 200,000 square feet.
But demand for ‘trophy’ digs is so strong that their supply is limited and shrinking,” JLL said.

In general, Manhattan rents today average between $60-$90 per square foot in most Class A buildings and much lower in Class B properties.

“The JLL numbers show how strong the attraction of the best buildings is,” said a source at another brokerage. “That means either new ones like One Vanderbilt and The Spiral, and older ones that either have great views or are landmarks with megabuck upgrades, like Lever House.”