Insurance group MetLife is further expanding its headquarters in its namesake MetLife Building at 200 Park Avenue in New York. As announced by real estate services firm CBRE, the company has signed a new ten-year lease for an additional 47,628 square feet of office space. This increases the insurer's total footprint in the 59-storey building in Midtown Manhattan from around 450,000 to approximately 500,000 square feet.
The parties involved did not disclose financial details or the asking rent. According to CBRE's monthly office market report, the average prime asking rent for office space in Midtown stood at $86.49 per square foot in October. The landlord, the Irvine Company, was represented in negotiations by a CBRE team comprising Mary Ann Tighe, Howard Fiddle, Peter Turchin, Evan Haskell, Brett Shannon and Julia Passante. Patrick Murphy of JLL acted as advisory broker for MetLife.
Long-standing ties to a New York landmark
MetLife's connection to the prominent property above Grand Central Terminal spans several decades. The insurance company acquired the high-rise, originally known as the Pan Am Building, from Pan American Airways in 1981 for $400 million. In 2005, MetLife sold the property for $1.72 billion to Tishman Speyer and the Irvine Company, a figure that represented a historic record price for a single office building in the United States at the time.
MetLife had most recently secured its long-term presence on Park Avenue in 2023 with an eleven-year renewal, which marked the sixth-largest office deal of the year in the New York market. Prior to that, it was publicly known that the company leased around 400,000 square feet; the exact timing of the interim increase to 450,000 square feet was not disclosed.
Stable leasing position at the MetLife Building
The renewed expansion underlines the tower's ongoing appeal to prestigious major occupiers. Alongside the namesake tenant, the Irvine Company has recently recorded several significant transactions with international corporate law firms:
- —Gibson Dunn extended its lease for 361,569 square feet of office space in January.
- —Winston & Strawn renewed its lease of 237,815 square feet in December 2024.
- —MetLife has now secured an additional 47,628 square feet for another decade.
With these recent transactions, full occupancy of the prominent high-rise in the heart of Manhattan remains secured at an impressively high level.
