We all know office space is New York City is extremely expensive. It is one of the most expensive office markets in the country, and some of the submarkets in the city are among the most expensive in the world. But just how expensive can office space in NYC get? Very, very expensive.
The are a couple of ways to measure how expensive office space is: the cost per square foot and the total cost of the annual payment.
From a per square foot basis, the most expensive office lease that has been signed to date in New York City is by the hedge fund Citadel. Citadel signed a lease for 200,000 square feet in a new building being built at 425 Park Avenue by L&L holdings. The lease covers the top floors of the building, and the price per square foot for the penthouse floor is $300 a square foot. The average cost for the entire least is a staggering $175 per foot. That’s more than $100 per foot higher than the average for Manhattan office space of $72.03. That comes out to a base rent of $35 million per year.
Despite this high price, it isn’t even close to the most expensive office rent in the world. For the most expensive office space in the world, we have to look East to Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s central business district averages $306 per square foot for prime space according to CNBC.
The most expensive leases in terms of annual rent are harder to find. Often, extremely large office transactions do not publish their cost per square foot. However, the biggest office lease of 2017 was signed by Blackrock for 847,000 square feet of space in Hudson Yards with a base payment of $50.8 million per year. Despite being four times more space than the Citadel lease, it is only an extra $15 million per year.
Not in the market for a $50 million a year lease? Not to worry. New York City has hundreds of millions of square feet of office space available, there is the perfect office space for your business and your budget. Contact us today to help you find the right space for your business, or browse some of the spaces we have available.
