REAL ESTATE NEWS

In a quarter when many landlords were still fighting to backfill pandemic-era move-outs, a handful of AI, fintech and financial services tenants quietly signed some of the richest office leases in the country. Across San Francisco, New York and Seattle, these users committed to long terms, large footprints or both, and in many cases agreed to starting and effective rents well above submarket norms.

Those outlier deals are captured in CompStak's Q1 2026 Office Deals of Distinction report, which highlights transactions by value, rent, size and building quality. Taken together, they point to a market where demand may be thin, but pricing power remains intact at the very top of the food chain.

San Francisco's AI Bet: Anthropic At 300 Howard

In San Francisco's South Financial District, Anthropic set the pace with a new lease for 412,875 square feet at 300 Howard Street, one of the largest office commitments of the quarter by both value and size.

The artificial intelligence company's 12-year deal carries a total consideration of more than $508.4 million, making it one of the top new leases in the country by value. The 144-month term is more than double the submarket's 69.5-month average for new leases and expansions in Q1, underscoring a level of conviction that has been rare in San Francisco since 2020.

Anthropic also agreed to an $87-per-square-foot starting rent, roughly 17.6% above the South Financial District average of $74 per square foot for comparable deals.

CompStak notes that, by transaction size, the 300 Howard lease is 13 times larger than the quarter's average new lease and expansion in the submarket, which totaled 32,063 square feet. It is also the largest deal the platform has tracked there since Google renewed 429,795 square feet at 345 Spear Street in Q1 2025, a benchmark that underscores how unusual it is for a single tenant to take down this much space in the current cycle.

Ramp's Long Game In Gramercy Park–Union Square

New York's most notable renewal-by-value came from financial technology firm Ramp, which extended and expanded its presence at 28–40 West 23rd Street in the Gramercy Park–Union Square submarket. The company committed to 285,303 square feet under a 12-year, 9-month extension and expansion with a total consideration of $318.4 million, ranking it among the top national renewal deals in Q1.

Ramp's 153-month term is nearly 65% longer than the submarket's 92.8-month average for renewals and extensions during the quarter. The starting rent of $93 per square foot also clears the local benchmark, coming in 7.5% higher than the $85.50 average for similar transactions.

Hudson Square, Hudson Yards And Park Avenue Attract Premium Users

On the West Side of Manhattan, PayPal Holdings emerged as one of the quarter's most notable TAMI tenants with a 260,872-square-foot new lease at 345 Hudson Street in the Hudson Square submarket. The 10-year commitment carries a total consideration of $200.6 million and a term length about 21.1% longer than the New York City market average of 99.1 months for the period.

The transaction size is more than four times the city's Q1 average of 51,536 square feet for renewals and extensions, signaling the payments company's willingness to consolidate at scale in a single West Side location.

Farther north at 50 Hudson Yards, Jump Trading made its own statement with a 99,305-square-foot new lease that CompStak flags as one of the top FIRE deals nationwide by value. The trading firm's 15-year commitment totals $388.8 million, more than three and a half times the 28,074-square-foot average for new leases and expansions in New York City during Q1.

The 180-month term is also 156.6% longer than the city's average lease term for such deals, a sign that at least some financial tenants remain comfortable locking in long-duration space in prime product.

Even smaller footprints are commanding eye-catching rents. At 1 Vanderbilt Avenue, AI infrastructure provider Nscale signed a 7,204-square-foot new lease with a starting rent of $320 per square foot, one of the highest starting rents recorded nationally in Q1.

The five-year term is 46.2% shorter than the Grand Central submarket's 111.5-month average, but the rental rate is roughly 200.4% above the $106.53 average for new leases and expansions in the area.

Park Avenue: Effective Rent And Trophy Space

Park Avenue also appears throughout CompStak's report, both for pricing and for trophy square footage. At 375 Park Avenue, MIC Capital, part of Mubadala, signed an 18,214-square-foot expansion, yielding one of the highest effective rents in the country at $275.56 per square foot.

The 19-year, 4-month term includes 16 months of free rent, equal to 6.9% of the lease duration, which is 190 basis points less generous than the Park Avenue submarket's 8.8% average free-rent ratio for new leases and expansions. Even with concessions, the deal's effective rent is 119.6% higher than the submarket's $125.50 average.

A few blocks away at 245 Park Avenue, The Carlyle Group executed one of the quarter's largest trophy-building leases, taking 150,036 square feet in a new lease. The 11-year term was brokered with SL Green Realty Corp. and Mori Trust as landlords, with CBRE and JLL representing the owners and tenant, respectively.

Carlyle's space is nearly six times the 25,865-square-foot average transaction size for Class A new leases and expansions in the Park Avenue submarket during Q1. The reported starting rent of $165 per square foot comes in 16.4% higher than the local Class A average of $141.78 per square foot.

CompStak notes that this was the largest trophy office building lease signed in New York City since Gibson Dunn extended for 361,569 square feet at 200 Park Avenue in Q1 2026.

OpenAI's Two-Market Expansion

If Anthropic's 300 Howard deal exemplifies a single-market bet, OpenAI's activity in Q1 shows what a multi-market expansion looks like at scale. The company added 282,124 square feet at 1800 Owens Street in San Francisco's Mission Bay/China Basin submarket and 247,487 square feet at 555 110th Avenue Northeast in Seattle's Bellevue CBD. OpenAI's national office footprint grew by 51.5% in the quarter as a result of these new leases.

In Mission Bay/China Basin, the 1800 Owens Street lease is 10 times larger than the San Francisco market's Q1 average transaction size of 27,599 square feet for new leases and expansions. In Bellevue, the 555 110th Avenue Northeast transaction—totaling 529,611 square feet—is almost 23 times the Seattle market's 23,056-square-foot average for comparable deals.

For landlords and investors, those multiples underscore a key message in CompStak's Q1 report: while overall office demand remains uneven, select blue-chip tenants in AI, fintech and finance continue to sign very large, very expensive leases when the right building and location line up.

Source: GlobeSt/ALM