Law Firm Inks 100K-SF Lease on Third Avenue in NYC

Law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo have signed a lease with SL Green Realty Corp. for a new headquarters location in New York City. The firm will occupy floors 37-39 as well as a portion of the concourse level at 919 Third Avenue, a 1.5 million-square-foot 47-story office tower. The lease totals 101,394 square feet.

Moshe Sukenik, Eric Zemachson and Jason Perla of Newmark & Company Real Estate represented Mintz in the transaction. According to Steven Durels, Executive Vice President and Director of Leasing and Real Property at SL Green, the transaction is a sign of growing leasing momentum in New York City.

Companies and workers returning to the office has helped to support increased office leasing in NYC. An office survey conducted by the Partnership for New York City found that 62% of office workers expect to be back in the office by Labor Day. In March, only 45% of workers that had the same expectation. This shows the rapid pace of the recovery, due largely to vaccinations.

In terms of remote work, the survey found that 71% off offices will implement a hybrid work model with a combination of in office and at-home work models, while only 25% of companies will require a return to the office. Only 4% of respondents said that returning to the office in some capacity was not required—good news for the office industry.

This is all adding up to increased office leasing activity. Leasing totaled 3.47 million square feet in the second quarter, a 20% quarter-over-quarter gain, according to research from CBRE. Midtown South led the Manhattan market in quarter-over-quarter improvement. Second quarter leasing totaled 788,000 square feet, a 52% increase over the first quarter. Despite the good news, leasing activity still fell a significant 44% below the five-year average of 6.14 square feet.