Vornado Taps Cushman & Wakefield to Lease Manhattan Tower
The landlord completed the building's $750 million makeover in 2023.
Vornado Realty Trust has appointed Cushman & Wakefield as exclusive leasing agent for PENN 2, a Class A, 1.8 million-square-foot high-rise in Midtown Manhattan.
The firm’s Chairman of Global Brokerage Bruce Mosler and Executive Vice Chair Josh Kuriloff will lead the leasing efforts. Mosler was recently part of the team that represented BXP and J.P. Morgan Global Alternatives in a 115,382-square-foot lease expansion at another Midtown office building.
PENN 2 is part of the PENN DISTRICT, a 10 million-square-foot master-planned property that includes PENN 1, The Farley Building, PENN 11 and the prospective PENN 15, which is expected to measure some 2.7 million square feet. Tenants within the campus include Meta, Morgan Stanley, Amazon, Samsung, The Hartford and Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp., which signed a 428,000-square-foot lease in 2021.
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The LEED Gold-certified high-rise features floorplates ranging between 61,000 and 105,000 square feet. Amenities include a triple-height lobby, multiple tenant lounges and some 73,000 square feet of outdoor tenant space, as well as 70,000 square feet of retail space.
Located on 2.7 acres at 2 Pennsylvania Plaza, on the west side of Seventh Avenue, the tower is less than half a mile from the Empire State Building and 2.4 miles from Lower Manhattan. John F. Kennedy International Airport is some 15 miles southeast.
A recently redeveloped building
Dating back to 1968, the PENN 2 tower went through a complete renovation totaling $750 million that was finished last year. Architecture firms MdeAS, Foster & Partners, A + I, Future Green and MNLA orchestrated the 31-story building’s upgrades.
The redevelopment involved the addition of a glass curtain wall and of 16 double-height outdoor tenant loggias, together with a six-story podium comprising 105,000 square feet of column-free space. Plans also called for a 300-seat town hall above the 33rd Street Plaza.
Recent office leases in Manhattan
In the largest office lease of last year, Fisher Brothers and institutional investors advised by J.P. Morgan Global Alternatives have signed a long-term, 765,000-square-foot leasing agreement at 1345 Avenue of the Americas, an approximately 2 million-square-foot office building in Midtown Manhattan. Additionally, PJT Partners renewed and expanded its lease at SL Green Realty Corp. and Vornado Realty Trust’s 280 Park Ave. The investment bank will occupy 270,000 square feet for 15 years.
As of November, Manhattan had a vacancy rate of 17.4 percent, 80 basis points below the national average, the latest CommercialEdge office report shows. The borough maintained its position as the most expensive U.S. market for office leasing, with an average of $70.8 per square foot—down 5.3 percent year-over-year.
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