Century-old NYC office building signs two deals to buck trend toward newer towers
While some older buildings atrophy, others thrive. Two new deals totaling 104,000 square feet have brought George Comfort & Sons’ 960,000 square-foot 498 Seventh Ave. to 95% occupied.
Public technology firm PubMatic, Inc., signed a 60,000 square-foot direct lease. The company, which was a subtenant will roughly double its space in the first quarter of 2025.
Meanwhile, engineering firm Hazen and Sawyer extended its lease on 44,000 sf until at least 2035.
George Comfort CEO Peter S. Duncan cited the property’s “light-filled workspaces, flexible floorplates, convenient amenities and unmatched location at the center of city’s most important transit hubs” as crucial to its success.
The 25-story tower opened in 1920 and was substantially modernized in 2021. The owners tapped design firm Gensler to reinvigorate the ground floor’s through-block lobby among other upgrades.
Asking rents are in the $60s, according to market sources.
Other tenants at 498 Seventh Ave. include engineering firm Cosentini Associates, construction specialists Milrose Consultants, design firm Dattner Architects and construction firm The McKissack Group.
Matt Coudert and Andrew Conrad represented George Comfort in-house in both transactions. Greg Taubin of Savills represented PubMatic. Curtis Dean of CD Commercial Real Estate Services repped Hazen and Sawyer.
Dated features saddle Midtown office building
Work-from-home is blamed for just about everything wrong in Manhattan’s commercial market. It was cited by developer David Sturner as one reason “most buildings are no longer considered safe investments” in a New York Times story about the $8.5 million fire sale of 135 W. 50th St., which traded for $332 million in ancient 2006.
But if 135 W. 50th St. is half the stinker described by reporter Matthew Haag — with badly dated layouts, little light and too-low ceilings, to say nothing of encumbrance by a ground lease — the $8.5 million price seems almost extravagant.
WFH can hardly explain the property’s 35% occupancy rate. Companies moved out because the building is a dead weight of the kind landlords once took for granted in the days of low interest rates and corporate expansion.
And while WFH won’t go away completely, it appears to be a slow-waning trend.
According to the Real Estate Board of New York’s latest survey based on Placer.ai location data, 350 Manhattan buildings registered 77% of the pre-pandemic physical-occupancy baseline relative to 2019.
It’s the highest monthly level since REBNY began tracking it in February 2023.
As usual, Class A+ properties led the pack with building visitations compared with 2019 hitting 91% in June, up from 83% in June of 2023.