Less than a year after securing over 50,000 square feet at 919 Third Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, the State of New York has expanded its presence in the building. The Office of General Services, which manages state-owned real estate, signed a 15-year lease for an additional 66,000 square feet at the SL Green property. This move increases the state’s total footprint in the tower to more than 117,000 square feet.
The new lease covers the top two floors of the building, with an asking rent of $85 per square foot. CBRE’s Stephen Siegel, Liz Lash, and Peter Larkin represented the tenant in this transaction. Another CBRE team—Robert Alexander, Ryan Alexander, and Emily Chabrier—represented SL Green.
With this latest agreement, all space in the 1.5 million-square-foot, 47-story office tower is now leased.
“Leasing velocity on Third Avenue has significantly increased this year, resulting in a notable shortage of large, high-quality availability,” said Steven Durels, executive vice president at SL Green.
Last November, the New York State Executive Chamber—the Office of the Governor—signed a seven-year lease for 53,000 square feet on the building’s 40th and 45th floors. That space was designated for Governor Kathy Hochul’s personal office as well as press and staff work areas.
Before choosing 919 Third Avenue for its expansion, the Office of General Services considered potential leases at 40 buildings and toured 20 locations. At that time it was already negotiating for more space at this address.
Other tenants in the building include law firms Schulte Roth & Zabel and Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo as well as Bloomberg.
According to a Colliers report cited by Colliers, Manhattan tenants leased 9.4 million square feet during the third quarter—a two percent increase from the previous quarter and nearly twenty-seven percent above the five-year quarterly average. For the full year so far, leasing volume exceeded thirty million square feet—surpassing pre-pandemic levels and marking the strongest year-to-date demand since 2002.
