Clear Moves Corporate Headquarters to Midtown Manhattan in 119,000-SF Lease

Technology secure identity company Clear is moving its headquarters to Midtown Manhattan. The company signed a 119,000-square-foot lease at 85 Tenth Avenue, New York, nearly tripling its current footprint in the market. The new location will serve as the firm’s headquarters.

Clear has had a headquarters in New York since it launched in 2010, but the firm has grown from a start-up with a few employees to more than 400 employees. The new office will accommodate its future growth.

It will also help to attract top talent. The building features 12-foot high bay windows, views of the water and the Statue of Liberty, large floorplates with incredible ceiling heights and a great location. The building has recently been improved with a new lobby that is equipped with Clear technology, elevators and a renovated exterior.

While the lease transaction illustrates Clear’s commitment to New York City, it also illustrates momentum in the office market. The city’s office sector was toppled during the pandemic, experiencing it lowest leasing volume in 20 years. However, activity has started to return.

According to a third quarter report from CBRE, Manhattan registered its strongest performance since the onset of the pandemic. Third-quarter Manhattan leasing totaled 5.88 million square feet, up 70% from Q2 2021. However, the Q3 total was still 5% below the five-year quarterly average of 6.16 million square feet. For the year-to-date, Manhattan leasing has outpaced the same period in 2020 by 13%.

While leasing activity is picking up, offices have not yet reopened. According to research from Placer.ai monthly office visits to an index of over 40 office towers were still short by more than half, or 51%, in July against the July of 2019. By comparison, retail visits fell by only 5.3% in the same period. The year-over-two-year visit gap had been consistently narrowing, but it grew again in August, when Placer.ai conducted the research.

Still, a major expansion for a company like Clear shows that there is a future for office in New York City. Newmark’s vice chairman Jared Horowitz and head of New York consulting, Jason Perla, represented the tenant in the lease transaction. Vornado’s Edward Riguardi and Anthony Cugini, with Related’s Stephen Winter, represented ownership in the transaction.