In a sign of strength of demand for shiny new Manhattan office space, Deloitte has committed to take 800K SF at a tower set to be the largest ground-up office project in the U.S. since the pandemic.

The Big Four accounting and consulting behemoth committed to take roughly three quarters of the 1.1M SF 70 Hudson Yards, on which Related Cos. and Oxford Properties expect to break ground in June, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Deloitte didn’t immediately respond to Bisnow’s request for comment. A Related spokesperson declined to comment.

The 717-foot-tall 70 Hudson Yards, designed by Gensler and Roger Ferris + Partners, would be the fifth office tower in the Far West Side megaproject. It is also planned to be NYC’s first carbon emissions-free skyscraper, New York YIMBY reported in December.

Related has already completed more than 9M SF of office at 10, 30, 50 and 55 Hudson Yards, leasing or selling large blocks of the trophy space to Fortune 500 companies Wells Fargo, KKR, Meta and BlackRock.

Deloitte plans to move its North American headquarters to the building from Rockefeller Center, where it leases more than 500K SF. Its Big Four professional services rival EY's headquarters is less than two blocks away at One Manhattan West.

Office rent in the Hudson Yards market averages more than $132 per SF, but new towers command rents north of $200 per SF, according to Savills. Corporations have been competing for a dwindling amount of top-of-the-line office space. Trophy availability across Manhattan is 12%, but in Hudson Yards it is just 9%.

Related's tower is one of just a handful expected to start construction, with BXP, Silverstein and RXR all preparing sites for multibillion-dollar towers. But Related, which signaled last year that it was getting ready to put shovels in the ground at 70 Hudson Yards, is now the first to land a prelease, which is critical to securing financing.