The GM building at 767 Fifth Ave. has edged out the rent record of Sheldon Solow's 9 W. 57th St., with the signing of the three deals where the rent starts at more than $200 per square foot last year. Belfer Management is one of those renters that kicked off at $220 a square foot, while the others agreed to pay more than $100, as revealed by a new report.
But that record will be shattered this year as Citadel now asks a rent of $300-per-square-foot-plus for the top floor, and more than 200,000 square feet of the upcoming base space of L&L Holdings at 425 Park Avenue.
According to a New York Post report, 50 buildings belong to the $100-per-square-foot club, which is up from 33 buildings in 2014. Last year, the following buildings at 51 Astor Place, 860 Washington, 11 Madison, and 770 Broadway all kicked off at $100-plus rents.
"Despite the market being tepid, the owners remained bullish," said managing director Cynthia Wasserberger of JLL, who made the report with colleagues, Jonathan Schifrin and Hayley Shoener.
The report included done deals for 138 buildings in 2015, with starting rents at more than $100 a square foot. A 42 percent increase from 97 counted in 2014, based on an article from Crain's New York.
The developer of a 900-foot-tall luxury office tower at 425 Park Avenue, which is under construction between 55th and 56th Streets, made a deal with the hedge fund Citadel to take over 200,000 square feet of the property for a record-breaking rent price. It includes the penthouse, which Citadel agreed to rent at $300 per square foot -- more than 50 percent from the previous peak rents that topped at about $200 per square foot.
"This is the highest standard of building in the 21st century on the grand boulevard of America," said David Levinson, chairman and CEO of L&L Holding Co., the company who developed 425 Park Avenue.
