Manhattan’s office market continues to show signs of a comeback. Vacancy rates are tightening, investor confidence is growing and major companies are recommitting to the city’s office spaces. At the forefront of this shift is Amazon, which has inked three significant leases in recent months, signaling a renewed push into Manhattan amid a broader return-to-work trend.

Amazon’s latest move is a 193,000-square-foot sublease at 237 Park Ave., a 1.25-million-square-foot Midtown tower owned by RXR and Walton Street Capital. The sublessor is believed to be advertising firm VML, which had a similar amount of space available. This deal follows two others — a 304,000-square-foot lease at 33 W. 34th St. in Chelsea last October (that occupied nearly half of Vornado Realty Trust’s 683,000-square-foot building) and a 112,000-square-foot lease at Hudson Yards’ Five Manhattan West in February, both of which are in partnership with WeWork.

Amazon isn’t alone, either. IBM recently signed a 93,000-square-foot expansion lease with SL Green in January, adding to the trend of tech firms reinvesting in Manhattan’s office spaces after years of uncertainty driven by remote work.

The numbers tell a similar story. According to CommercialEdge, Manhattan’s office vacancy rate dropped to 16.4% in February, down 30 basis points from last year, while the national average climbed to 19.7%, up 180 basis points. Additionally, asking rents in Manhattan — though down 3.6% from $76.04 per square foot in 2023 to $68.93 today — ticked up slightly from $68.24 in January, hinting at stabilization. Thus, with limited new construction (2.67 million square feet) compared to markets like San Francisco (3.22 million square feet) or Boston (6.55 million square feet), Manhattan could see rents rise in 2025.

Investors are also taking notice: Blackstone, which has slashed its office holdings to less than 2% of its real estate portfolio (down from 60% in 2017) is now hunting for Manhattan properties, alongside other wealthy individuals, per Reuters.