The tech industry, having been mostly missing from New York’s office leasing activity in recent years, is giving more signs it’s back in the market.
So-called TAMI tenants, referring to tech, advertising, media and information-type users of office space, are looking for a combined 7.8 million square feet in New York this month, up about 86% from a year earlier, a new study from the real estate firm Newmark found.
Financial, insurance and real estate tenants are seeking the most space overall at 9.7 million square feet, Newmark said.
The tech space requirements this month came after February leasing jumped 81.9%, driven by deals including IBM expanding its footprint at One Madison and software company Intuit signing 76,203 square feet at 51 Astor Place to expand from its existing 42,232-square-foot sublease, according to Newmark.
The tech industry, led by giants such as Google, Facebook parent Meta, and Amazon, had been key in driving Manhattan’s office demand before remote working took hold during the pandemic and led to cutbacks in space. That trend is reversing, however, amid employers’ growing push to call employees back to the office at least some days of the week.
The tech sector’s improved leasing goes beyond New York. Nationally, its share of office leasing volume in the third quarter rose to 21%, the highest level since the third quarter of 2021, a CBRE study released in November found, adding that markets such as Manhattan are “positioned for renewed growth.”
A sector revived
Marc Holliday, chief executive of Manhattan's largest office landlord, SL Green Realty, is upbeat about tech's return to New York.
“We're going to see, for the first time in a long time, tech be a meaningful part of the overall leasing,” Holliday said in a recent interview with CoStar News.
A number of other Manhattan landlords have pointed to the comeback of tech tenants. Vornado Chief Executive Steven Roth has said, for instance, the “tech sector demand is coming back strong” in the city.
CBRE found New York tech leasing to have the second-largest share of new leases in January and February behind financial services.
“A strong pipeline of tech requirements — that began to form in 2024 — has sustained in 2025,” Michael Slattery, CBRE’s tristate research director, told CoStar News in an email.
Amazon, having asked its employees to return to the office five days a week, in February signed a sublease spanning 193,431 square feet at 237 Park Ave. in what CBRE has described as the biggest office deal in midtown Manhattan in February. Amazon also has signed direct deals or partnered with WeWork, which leases space for use by Amazon, in both New York and other markets.
To be sure, while the tech sector last year posted its strongest leasing volume in five years of 3.82 million square feet, that was still about half of its record 7.57 million square feet of leasing in 2019, Franklin Wallach, executive managing director at Colliers, told CoStar News.
And like the rest of the office market, it remains a question whether demand will ever recover back to the pre-pandemic level, with studies having found average space taken declining despite some companies expanding their footprint and companies seeking locations near transit hubs and offering appealing amenities, industry professionals have said.
The tech sector “is coming back to [the workplace] Tuesday to Thursday” like other sectors, Jeff Peck, vice chairman at the brokerage Savills in New York, said in an interview. “It’s giving companies confidence to move forward on transactions. There’s no question the market has heated up.” However, Peck said demand hasn't been as strong as it used to be because coming back only three days a week "will force companies to lease less office space."