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In some good news for the otherwise-gloomy office leasing market, Amazon has reportedly inked a deal in Williamsburg for its music streaming service.
Amazon Music is taking 40K SF at 25 Kent Ave., where it will set up studio and production spaces, Business Insider reports. The 500K SF building was built by a joint venture of Rubenstein Partners and Heritage Equity Partners, and was the first ground-up office development built on spec in the area in decades.
In December, Fashion brand Kith signed on as the anchor tenant, taking nearly 58K of the building's 87K SF of manufacturing space. JLL represented the building's owners in the the Amazon deal.
Office leasing across the city has slowed to a trickle as uncertainty looms and workers have retreated to their homes. Manhattan is on track to hit a 20-year low for leasing volume this year, according to Colliers International. Asking rents declined and availability expanded significantly this August, plus leasing activity dropped by nearly half — from 2.39M SF to 1.3M SF — between July and August.
However, technology deals have become a bright spot in the dreary market. Video-sharing app TikTok leased 232K SF at 151 West 42nd St. earlier in the crisis, and Facebook has agreed to take 730K SF at Vornado’s Farley Building redevelopment.
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