Empire State Building office occupancy rate tops 90% to buck NYC’s woes

When you’re a huge, publicly-traded company with more than eight million square feet of offices in a struggling market, it helps to have a world-famous Observatory on top of your most famous building.

Empire State Realty Trust’s third-quarter results revealed a solid overall leasing performance including 90.5% occupancy in Manhattan and  comfortable liquidity.

But its most intriguing detail might be that 3Q Empire State Building Observatory revenue was up $37.6 million, or 13.6% over the second quarter and 14% over 3Q in 2022.

Although visitation was only 71% of 2019 totals, visitors spent more, as noted by research analysts BTIG, who noted a “solid” overall leasing performance.

Meanwhile, LinkedIn added more than 25,000 square feet to its space in the tower last month, bringing its total  to over 526,000 square feet.

At the same time, Starbucks leased 26,000 square feet for its offices, moving from 370 Seventh Ave.

The landmark is 90.2% leased, according to ESRT CEO Anthony Malkin, in a market where 20% vacancy is the norm.

For good measure, King Kong’s favorite skyscraper just earned three awards for “excellence in building management, sustainability and community contributions” — the BOMA Grand Pinnacle Award, BOMA Earth Award, and the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce’s Landmark of the Year honor.

It’s an impressive record for a building whose future was supposedly “in doubt” according to a seriously misinformed New York Times story in 2021.

We can add another major office tenant to our roster of companies in the  market for new space.

Stone Peak Capital is said by a source to have a lease out for 75,000 square feet at SL Green’s 245 Park Avenue. SL Green leasing director Steven Durels had “no comment at this time.”

We reported last week that a number of large firms either had leases out or were in advanced talks for expansion or consolidation space at several prominent locations.

Among them are BDT & MSD Partners for 100,000 square feet at Olayan America’s 550 Madison Avenue, which a source said “practically a sure thing,” and a potential addition of 100,000 square feet by TD Bank at 22 Vanderbilt.

The bank has 200,000 feet at 1 Vanderbilt where it will remain.