6 days ago
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Manhattan tech real estate surges with best start to year since 2000
Story Highlights Manhattan tech real estate leasing reaches 1.67 million square feet so far this year.
Amazon leads leasing activity with major deals in Manhattan.
AI subsector's share of tech leasing increases to 19%.
Manhattan tech real estate is making a comeback, according to a recent CBRE Manhattan Tech Brief.
The sector saw 441,000 square feet of leasing in April, bringing its year-to-date total to 1.67 million, marking the best start to a year since 2000.
This comes after a year when the tech sector accounted for 3.16 million square feet leased in 2024 — its highest annual leasing velocity since 2019. With more than 1 million square feet leased in the fourth quarter and 1.2 million square feet in Q1, the tech sector recorded its strongest back-to-back quarterly performance since Q1 of 2020.
The report attributes the sector's resurgence to 'industry stalwarts coming off the sidelines to transact again, mid- and early-stage firms resuming growth, and the artificial intelligence (AI) subsector's rapid expansion.'
Amazon has been behind a large swath of the leasing activity this year, logging the three biggest deals highlighted in the report with an approximately 331,200-square-foot lease at 452 Fifth Ave. and a 192,700-square-foot lease at 237 Park Ave., as well as a nearly 112,300-square-feet deal at 5 Manhattan West with WeWork.
Mid- and early-stage firms have also contributed to the surge in tech leasing activity by growing their real estate footprints in New York City. Two notable deals include Rippling more than tripling its footprint by leasing around 68,700 square feet at 4 World Trade Center and Plaid Inc. growing by more than 50% with a 45,000-square-foot lease at 530 Broadway.
Lastly, the AI subsector now accounts for a larger percentage of total tech leasing velocity. From 2020 to 2022, AI accounted for an 8% share of total leasing velocity, according to the report. That number increased to 19% from 2023 to year-to-date 2025 with 1.28 million square feet.
The report singles out OpenAI's 90,000-square-foot lease at 295 Lafayette St. as being key to the uptick in velocity in this subsector.
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