The Plaza District is anchored by the southeast corner of Central Park. Most agree that the district is defined between the East River and Seventh Avenues, with 65th and 42nd streets as its North-South borders. The Plaza District derives its name from the landmark 19th-century Plaza Hotel and the Grand Army Plaza. The district is home to many famous buildings and landmarks, including Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Plaza, the Chrysler Building, and MoMa.
Midtown Manhattan is the largest central business district in the world, and the Plaza District boasts some of the most premier commercial real estate in the city. Its tall buildings primarily provide office space for holding companies, investment groups, media groups, consulting firms, accounting firms, and hedge funds. Two-thirds of hedge funds lease NYC office space in the Plaza District.
Notable Plaza District tenants include Deloitte, Accenture, Mizuho Americas, Bloomberg Media, Colgate-Palmolive, JP Morgan, Pfizer, Cisco Systems, Fox News, and NBC Studios.
Plaza District Office Space | Lease Data & Trends
The Plaza District sees a range of asking rents and holds a Class A average of more than $95 per square foot, around $10 per square foot more expensive than the Midtown average. Many upper floors — especially those with views of Central Park — can lease for up to $200 per square foot, and many of the most expensive Plaza District buildings (such as the SoLow and General Motors Buildings) have an average asking rent of $140+ per square foot.
The cost of office space is largely determined by location, building class, lease terms and length, and renovation costs. Not sure about the differences between Class A and Class B office spaces? What about gross lease, triple net leases, and tenant improvement allowance? A licensed tenant broker will leverage these factors to negotiate your lease, but if you want to learn more for yourself, check out our Leasopedia.
What Our Brokers Say About Plaza District Office Space for Rent
Inventory stands at nearly 102,000,000 square feet, with vacancy around 10%. As some tenants such as Blackrock choose to leave the Plaza District for Hudson Yards, vacancy is expected to go up. The Plaza District is ideal for small to mid-size financial services. Between 2015 and 2017, 65% of signed leases for less than 20,000 square feet in Midtown were concentrated in the Plaza District.
Co-working spaces are also finding their way into the Plaza District. WeWork has four Plaza District locations and signed a lease at the beginning of 2018 for a 400,000 square foot office space at 750 Lexington Ave. NYC Office Suites has 75,000 square feet covering three floors in the LOVE Building, and Grand Central Tech resides at 335 Madison Ave. Plaza District is also an ideal location for any business that interacts with the United Nations ecosystem of organizations, which are mostly based in Midtown East and Murray Hill.
Plaza District Neighborhood History
Construction above 42nd Street soared in the 1920s after the completion of Grand Central Station. Thirty new skyscrapers went up in 1927 alone, and Midtown’s reputation as the epicenter of business in New York City only continued to solidify throughout the 20th century.
Unlike the up-and-coming neighborhoods that value repurposing old warehouses and factories into work spaces, the majority of older buildings in the Plaza District were designed with businesses in mind. There has been little to no large-scale construction in recent years, although landlords are starting to issue significant renovations to attract the younger workforce.
Getting Around the Plaza District
The Plaza District provides a variety of transportation options for easy commuting around the city,with Grand Central Station as the primary hub in the south-east corner of the district. Subway lines B, D, F, M, 1, N, Q, R as well as bus lines M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M7, and M50 service the area. Suburban commuters take the Metro North from Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess Counties, and much of Connecticut. Taxis are readily available to drive you to your next destination.
The Plaza District has heavy foot traffic. From the north, employees can enjoy walking or biking to work through Central Park. There are also bike lanes on Second Avenue (southbound) and First Avenue (northbound).
Nearby neighborhoods include: Columbus Circle, Times Square, Park Avenue, and Fifth-Madison.