Empire State Building signs Insurance Company for 52K SF

Empire State Realty Trust signed another tenant for a piece of its Big Apple landmark.

Greater New York Mutual Insurance is taking 52,000 square feet at the Empire State Building, Bloomberg reported. The insurance firm will occupy a full floor of the tower for 17 years.

The asking rent wasn’t disclosed, nor were the brokers involved in the transaction. GNY Insurance has another in Midtown Manhattan office at 200 Madison Avenue, which is owned by a joint venture of Jamestown, George Comfort and Sons and Loeb Partners Realty; it’s not immediately clear if GNY Insurance will maintain that office.

Tony Malkin’s real estate investment trust saw multiple successes at the Empire State Building in recent months, fending off questions about the future of the iconic property.

In October, LinkedIn tacked on 25,000 square feet to its offices at the property, increasing its footprint in the building to 526,000 square feet. Starbucks recently relocated from 370 Seventh Avenue to 26,000 square feet at the landmark.

Those leases helped propel the 2.7 million-square-foot, 102-story building past 90 percent occupancy for its office space. The property was 82 percent leased at the end of 2022 and 87 percent leased at the beginning of last year.

ESRT completed a $550 million overhaul of the property infrastructure in 2006. Questions have arisen in recent years about how the building can compete with newer and upgraded office buildings, with an office-to-residential conversion floated among the possibilities.

Office leasing activity in Manhattan rose by 27 percent from the third quarter to 8.23 million square feet in the fourth quarter, according to a report from Colliers. That marked the borough’s strongest quarter in more than a year, but 96.5 million square feet remained available at the end of the year.

— Holden Walter-Warner