Facebook Inks 730 KSF Office Lease in Manhattan

The Farley Building. Rendering courtesy of Vornado Realty Trust

Facebook has agreed to take 730,000 square feet of office space at The Farley Building, Vornado Realty Trust’s redevelopment project in Midtown Manhattan, marking one of New York City’s largest leases of the year.

The new lease comprises the entire office portion of the building, a historic post office which Vornado is converting into a mixed-use complex that will also include 120,000 square feet of retail space and an expanded train hall.

READ ALSO: Facebook to Build $800M Data Center in Metro Chicago

Farley forms part of Vornado’s Penn District, where the real estate investment trust owns 10 million square feet and is undertaking more than $2 billion in development efforts. Facebook will occupy a Beaux Arts landmark that spans a double-wide block between 31st and 33rd Streets and Eighth and Ninth Avenues. The new project will be completed in phases, beginning by the end of 2020. Farley will feature large, open floorplates, slab heights of more than 17 feet, multiple office lobbies and a nearly 70,000-square-foot outdoor landscaped park space on the fifth floor.

In addition to private investment, Penn District is slated to receive more than $3 billion in government infrastructure and transportation spending aimed at revitalizing the area around the West Side transit hub. Vornado’s scheme for the neighborhood also includes the office redevelopments Penn 1 and Penn 2.

Tech Titans Head to Manhattan

Vornado owns a 95 percent share of the Farley project, with developer The Related Cos. holding the remaining 5 percent. Facebook also leases office space at Vornado’s 770 Broadway in Lower Manhattan and at Hudson Yards to the west, where the social media firm leased more than 1.5 million square feet across three buildings last November.

Facebook’s new lease is a vote of confidence in New York as a growing tech industry hub and follows recent deals by industry giants Google and Amazon, both of which expanded their footprints in Manhattan last year. This past May, ByteDance, the parent company of video-sharing app TikTok, signed a 10-year commitment for 232,000 square feet at The Durst Organization’s One Five One skyscraper in Times Square—breaking the pandemic-induced cold spell in the borough’s office market.