Two Manhattan West Snares Another Big-Ticket Lease

Glass façade work is nearing completion on Two Manhattan West, a 58-story tower that will encompass 2M SF of office space when it opens early next year—with pre-leasing of the building nearly three-quarters complete.

Two Manhattan West, the south tower in Brookfield Asset Management’s twin-tower development on Manhattan’s far West Side at the corner of West 31 St. and Ninth Avenue, inked another big-ticket lease this week.

Hedge fund giant D.E. Shaw & Co. signed a lease to occupy eight floors at Two Manhattan West, a footprint encompassing about 283K SF.

Shaw announced that it will be relocating its offices from 1166 Avenue of the Americas—where it has a smaller footprint, estimated at 200K SF—and move into the new skyscraper in 2024.

The deal with Shaw is the third large pre-lease announced in recent weeks for Two Manhattan West, which is now 76% leased. Last month, KPMG inked a deal for 450,000K SF at Two Manhattan West, the largest office lease in NYC this year to date.

KPMG, which published a survey during the pandemic which revealed that nearly 70% of CEOs expected to downsize their office footprints, joined the trend with its office relocation, which is part of the company’s transition to hybrid work.

KPMG has been working out of three offices encompassing 800K SF in Manhattan, so its move will result in a downsizing of 350K SF for the global accounting firm. KPMG’s 20-year lease will span offices on floors 13 through 24 at Two Manhattan West, with the firm moving into the space in 2025.

The law firm Cravath Swaine & Moore has signed a lease to occupy 350,000K SF at Two Manhattan West.

Two Manhattan West, one of five towers Brookfield has been developing in the Hudson Yards tract, is in a prime position to reap the flight to quality by office occupiers who are flocking to new Class A office buildings with superior amenities.

Amenities at the 935-foot tall tower, designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill, include a 3,200K SF landscaped terrace, conference centers and a wellness center.

Office leasing activity in Manhattan nearly doubled in July, surging to 3.16M SF from June’s total of 2.2M and almost 1M SF more than the activity recorded in July 2021, according to Colliers.

The overall July leasing activity in Manhattan was the strongest monthly leasing total since January 2020. Although the leasing velocity in Manhattan surpassed average monthly totals in each of the past two years, it was still 11.6% below the 2019 pre-pandemic average of 3.58M SF.

Midtown offices led the leasing surge in July with 1.98M SF in leasing activity, with Midtown South leases totaling 707K SF and Downtown offices recording 480K SF in leasing, Colliers Manhattan Office Space Market Snapshot said.