Manhattan’s office market may be waiting on a fairy godmother, but it just got a boost from Robin Hood.
The city’s poverty-relief nonprofit (not the investing platform) signed a lease for 53,000 square feet at the Feil Organization’s 841 Broadway in Union Square, the Commercial Observer reported. Asking rent at the building is approximately $80 per square foot.
The 30-year lease will see Robin Hood relocate from the nearby 826 Broadway to four floors of the Roosevelt Building. The move marks an expansion from its current 37,000-square-foot presence, according to Crain’s. The organization’s managing director for real estate, Susan Sack, said in a statement that the “space at 841 Broadway provides the scale and layout we were looking for as we continue expanding our work across New York City.”
Feil’s Andrew Wiener and Robert Fisher represented the landlord in-house, while JLL’s David Carlos and Andrew Dzenis represented the nonprofit.
Other tenants at the eight-story building include artificial intelligence company Perplexity and software company Movable Ink, as well as retail tenant Max Brenner on the ground floor. Robin Hood’s lease brings the property to full occupancy.
The successful filling up of 841 Broadway stands in contrast to issues Feil is facing elsewhere in its portfolio. In the fall, the Midtown South office building at 261 Fifth Avenue entered special servicing after the company failed to pay off its $180 million mortgage in September. Despite the missed payment, Fitch Ratings reported in July that the property generates enough cash to service its debts, suggesting a potential opportunity for refinancing at a higher rate.
Feil is facing additional financial distress across its portfolio, including foreclosure lawsuits in Chicago.
The Manhattan office market had a solid first quarter with 11.8 million square feet leased, according to Colliers, marking the strongest first quarter since 2014. A caveat, however, is that more than one-fifth of the leasing volume was driven by Bank of America’s 2.4 million-square-foot renewal in Midtown.
The availability rate tightened to 13.7 percent. AI-related companies leased more than 600,000 square feet, on track to surpass last year’s total.
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