Move over, C-Note — the Manhattan high-end office market’s new exclusive club has a $200 per-square-foot admission charge.
A record 28 new leases were done at rents above $200 per square foot in 2024, The Post has learned.
The deals represented the top tier of the top tier.
Meanwhile, there was also a record, 212 deals inked for at least $100 per square foot, according to a stunning new JLL report.
The JLL report highlighted a banner Manhattan leasing year that saw 30.2 million square feet in overall space-grabbing – up 19.4% over 2023 and the first time the 30-million mark was hit since 2018.
“The top-of-the-market [$100-and-up] leasing represented almost a third of the whole market for 2024,” marveled JLL vice-chairman Cynthia Wasserberger, leader of a JLL team that shared an “Analysis of Top Tier Transactions” with The Post.
“When we peel back on the $200-plus market, people aren’t blinking at these rents any more. We saw nearly 600,000 square feet of them” in 2024, Wasserberger said.
The larger, $100-plus pinnacle class of 2024 accounted for an unprecedented 9.8 million square feet of space, as measured by JLL, handily whipping the previous high of 8.8 million square feet in ancient-seeming 2019.
A mere 5.6 million square feet clocked in at $100-plus in 2023.
Although JLL named no 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 sublease floors at rents above $100 per square foot.
“Visa and Stonepeak were feeling heat to sign at 30 Hudson Yards by the end of the year,” one insider told The Post. “Because if they didn’t, they knew there was no shortage of others ready and willing to jump 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 market slowly, and unevenly, recovers from the pandemic.
Although JLL said the “work-from-home dynamic is firmly in the rear-view mirror,” overall Manhattan availability hovers around 18% despite much lower vacancy rates in prime corridors such as Park and Sixth avenues.
That of course means vacancies are much higher in other locations. But owners of the premier properties are sitting pretty.
Park Avenue boasted the most top-dollar deals, 52, as well as four of the 10 largest-by-size leases, JLL found. The Seagram Building had the most top-tier deals with 12, of which nine were for $200 or more.
Vornado Realty Trust earned bragging rights for the highest number of C-Note deals — 19 of them totaling over 1.361 million square feet.
The likely most lucrative deal on a per-square-foot basis was at SL Green’s One Vanderbilt, where law firm McDermott, Will & Emery paid a staggering $280 psf for a high-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 the C-note class.
JLL cited “an almost insatiable demand for quality office space” by Wall Street – “which reasserted itself in dramatic fashion” after a period of dominance by technology firms.
Others in the $200-plus class were, as per market sources, Tikehau Capital and Platinum Equity at 9 West 57th St.; Patient Square Capital at the GM Building; Leerink Partners and Freestone Grove Partners at the Seagram Building; and Westpac Advisors at Lever House.
In the mere $100-plus class, the largest by size appears to be Blackstone’s renewal and future expansion at Rudin’s 345 Park Avenue.
Although JLL again wouldn’t identify the tenant, its list of the largest transactions was topped by a single, 1.056 million square-foot commitment there. It sounds like the 1.06 million square-foot deal by Stephen Schwarzman’s firm which the Commercial Observer reported last summer.
C-Note leases were once much scarcer, averaging only an average of 110 a year before the pandemic — most in “boutique” spaces of under 10,000 square feet.
JLL’s 2024 tally included 35 leases for more than 50,000 square feet and 11 for over 200,000 square feet.
But demand for “trophy” digs is so strong that their supply is limited and shrinking,” JLL said.
Overall, 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 appeal is of the very best buildings,” a source at a different brokerage said. “That means either brand-new ones such as One Vanderbilt and The Spiral, and older ones that either have fantastic views or are landmarks with megabucks upgrades, like Lever House.”
