Blackstone Expands By 200K SF At Boston Properties’ Midtown Tower

Blackstone is making a major expansion of its Manhattan office space, more than doubling its presence on Lexington Avenue.

The company is adding 200K SF to its location at 601 Lexington Ave., where it has its technology and innovations group, Bloomberg reports, citing anonymous sources. With this expansion, the company will have 300K SF in the building.

The deal, which runs through to 2028, follows reports that the firm is looking for about 1.5M SF of office space, which could either mean a new headquarters or expanding at its current HQ at 345 Park Ave.

The lease comes as many workplaces weigh how they will make use of their office space, as workers increasingly opt to incorporate remote work into their office use at least some of the time. 

New York City office leasing has picked up significantly since the onset of the pandemic, but availability is still increasing, reaching nearly 20% in Manhattan early in 2022. Increasingly, there are questions about older, Class-B office buildings. Blackstone itself handed back the keys to its lender at 1740 Broadway, an art deco office building just north of Times Square, earlier this year.

But office proponents point to expansions and big-name firms committing to a workplace presence in the city. JPMorgan Chase, for example, just revealed its plans for its 2.M SF upcoming headquarters at 270 Park Ave., while SL Green’s One Vanderbilt is now almost completely leased up.

“As you look at the vibrancy of the city — and yes, there are all sorts of issues and all sorts of problems that certainly need to be addressed over time — [but] I do think that the creative nexus that is here will continue to grow and thrive,” CBRE Executive Vice President Lauren Crowley Corrinet said on Bisnow’s podcast this week. 

Newmark brokered the deal at 601 Lexington Ave. for Blackstone, per Bloomberg.