How General Atlantic's 625 Madison lease shows Manhattan's trophy office squeeze
General Atlantic will anchor Related's under-construction 625 Madison Avenue tower, the latest sign that new Class AA office space in Manhattan is nearly gone.
General Atlantic has agreed to anchor Related Companies' under-construction tower at 625 Madison Avenue, taking more than 150,000 square feet across five floors as its new global headquarters. The lease, announced in early September, is the largest transaction so far at a building that will not open until 2029.
The deal is notable less for General Atlantic's own real estate decision than for what it reflects about the broader market. Manhattan's pipeline of new, ground-up office towers has narrowed sharply, and space in Midtown's most sought-after buildings has become difficult to find at any price.
What General Atlantic Signed
General Atlantic will occupy more than 150,000 square feet across five floors at 625 Madison Avenue, according to the firm's own announcement. The space will house more than 330 of the firm's New York-based professionals, roughly one-third of its more than 900 employees across 21 offices worldwide. General Atlantic is currently based at Park Avenue Plaza, 55 East 52nd Street.
Bill Ford, General Atlantic's chairman and chief executive, said in the announcement that the firm "has always taken a long-term view," framing the new headquarters as an investment in its future. The exact length of the lease and the asking rent were not disclosed.
General Atlantic is not the first tenant at the building. Veritas Capital signed a lease for roughly 93,000 square feet at 625 Madison in August, ahead of the General Atlantic deal, according to Crain's New York Business and CommercialCafe.
The Building Related Is Betting On
625 Madison Avenue will rise 53 stories and more than 680 feet between East 58th and East 59th Streets along Madison Avenue, in Manhattan's Plaza District, two blocks east of the Plaza Hotel. Related Companies is developing the roughly 858,500-square-foot tower with Foster + Partners and Gensler as architects. The building is designed to be all-electric and is targeting LEED Platinum certification, and Related is marketing it as Class AA space.
Related bought the site from SL Green Realty for a gross price of $632.5 million, or $1,123 per square foot on the then-existing 563,000-square-foot building, in a deal SL Green announced on December 4, 2023. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund later took a two-thirds stake in the project, after investing roughly $200 million; total project costs are expected to exceed $1 billion, according to CommercialCafe. Vertical construction began this summer, with completion targeted for 2029.
The Related Companies website describes 625 Madison as the first ground-up office development in the Plaza District in more than three decades, while CommercialSearch calls it among the first new, ground-up Class AA office projects in the submarket in recent years.
A Market Split Between Trophy Space And Everything Else
Manhattan's office market shows sharply different conditions depending on which data source and which slice of the market is measured. Cushman & Wakefield's second-quarter 2026 report put Manhattan's overall office vacancy rate at 19.3%, the lowest quarterly figure since the third quarter of 2021, with Class A asking rents at $84.79 per square foot. A separate report from CommercialEdge, published in April 2026, put Manhattan's overall vacancy rate at 13.1% with average asking rents of $69.29 per square foot — a reminder that vacancy and rent figures vary meaningfully depending on which firm compiles them and which buildings are included.
Within that overall market, trophy buildings tell a tighter story. Data cited by Commercial Observer put availability across Midtown's top 50 trophy buildings below 3.7%, compared with more than 12% before the pandemic. A fourth-quarter 2025 Transwestern report cited by Commercial Observer put Plaza District submarket availability at 10.4%, with Class A asking rents in the submarket at $92.01 per square foot — among the highest of any Midtown submarket.
New supply is not keeping pace. CommercialEdge counted just 3.3 million square feet of Manhattan office space under construction across nine projects as of April 2026, equal to 0.7% of existing inventory. The largest of those projects, 70 Hudson Yards at 1.4 million square feet, is not expected to finish until October 2028.
“Space in Midtown's most sought-after buildings has become difficult to find at any price.”
Tenants Are Signing Years Before Buildings Open
General Atlantic's move fits a broader pattern of large tenants committing to space well ahead of a building's completion. Citadel has signed at 350 Park Avenue and Deloitte at 70 Hudson Yards, both still under development, according to CREdaily. Simpson Thacher signed a 916,000-square-foot pre-lease to anchor 570 Fifth Avenue, also years ahead of that building's completion.
The pattern extends to other Plaza District projects. BXP announced on January 7, 2026 that Starr, the global insurance and investment firm, signed a 20-year lease for roughly 275,000 square feet at 343 Madison Avenue, occupying floors 16 through 27, or about 30% of the 930,000-square-foot tower. That building, also under construction with direct access to Grand Central Terminal, is not expected to open until late 2029.
CREdaily also reported that traditional lease renewals in Manhattan rose to 44 transactions in 2025, up from 36 the year before, which it described as evidence of intensified competition for limited inventory. Separately, Commercial Observer reported that Manhattan office leasing activity totaled 3.25 million square feet in August 2026, down from 3.9 million square feet in July, but that year-to-date volume was running nearly 10% ahead of 2025 — putting the market, by that measure, on pace for its strongest year since 2000.
What Else Is Rising Around Related's Tower
625 Madison is one of several new office projects reshaping the Plaza District. In addition to BXP's 343 Madison Avenue, CommercialSearch reported that Extell Development is building at 655 Madison Avenue and that Rolex is constructing a future headquarters at 665 Fifth Avenue.
Related is also active elsewhere in the same part of Manhattan. The company's existing holdings include the Deutsche Bank Center at Columbus Circle. Jeff Blau, Related's chief executive, leads a company that ConnectCRE reported manages more than $100 billion in assets owned or under development.
