Kaufman Inks Midtown Manhattan Office Lease

Cluett Building. Image courtesy of CommercialEdge

Non-profit Building Service 32BJ Health Fund has signed a 18,850-square-foot lease at Kaufman Organization’s Cluett Building in New York City. Cushman & Wakefield brokered the lease signing on behalf of the tenant, while the landlord handled the deal in-house.

With its main headquarters situated at the neighboring 25 W. 18th St. building, the new tenant will occupy the entire second floor of at the new Midtown location. According to CommercialEdge, Morning Brew, Amino, Fisher Dachs Associates and FXCollaborative are among the other tenants at the property.

Dating back to 1901, the 191,400-square-foot office building underwent cosmetic renovations in 1987 and 2013. The property also incorporates an 8,100-square-foot showroom, 14,000 square feet of retail space, a renovated lobby and 24/7 access.

Located at 22 W. 19th St., in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, the property is within walking distance from Penn Station and the PATH train, as well as the N, R and F subway lines.

Cushman & Wakefield Senior Associate Jenna Catalon and Executive Vice Chair Mark Weiss represented the tenant in the transaction, while Partner Michael Heaner and Vice President Sam Stein at Kaufman worked on behalf of the landlord.

NYC office vacancy continues to rise

According to a New York office report by JLL, 7.9 million square feet of office space was delivered in the fourth quarter of 2022, including 50 Hudson Yards and The Spiral, which added almost 5.8 million square feet to the borough’s existing supply. Although leasing in new construction has been the most active in recent years, demand isn’t strong enough to keep up, leading to a rise in the overall vacancy rate.

Additionally, 3.8 million square feet of sublease space became available, as companies, particularly tech firms, dispose of their space as a cost-saving strategy. This trend factored into a 30-basis-point quarter-over-quarter increase of Manhattan’s vacancy rate, which reached 15.9 percent at the end of 2022, according to the same report.