SL Green, Mori Team Up on New Midtown Office Tower
The race for trophy office space continues: SL Green and Mori unveil plans for a new Grand Central-adjacent tower.
Good morning. Manhattan’s trophy office market continues to attract major investment. SL Green and Japan’s Mori Building Co. are partnering on a new 46-story office tower near Grand Central, betting that demand for premium workspace will remain strong.
🎙️This Week on No Cap: RREAF Holdings’ Kip Sowden and Doug McKnight share how they built a $4.8B Sun Belt platform out of post-GFC distress, and why middle-market housing and extended stay hotels are their highest-conviction bets as a new real estate cycle begins. (This season is sponsored by Henry)
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Market Snapshot
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Next Landmark
SL Green, Mori Team Up on New Midtown Office Tower
SL Green is doubling down on Manhattan’s trophy office market, bringing in Japan’s Mori Building Co. to develop a new office tower steps from Grand Central Terminal.
The deal: SL Green Realty has partnered with Tokyo-based Mori Building Co. to build 346 Madison Avenue, a 46-story office tower in Midtown Manhattan. The project will deliver approximately 850,000 SF of rentable office space and further expands the two companies’ growing relationship in New York.
Project details: Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), the tower will feature premium amenities including outdoor terraces, a wellness center with a padel court, an auditorium, and a tenant lounge. The project will rise between 44th and 45th Streets near Grand Central Terminal, just steps from SL Green’s One Vanderbilt.
Capital commitment: SL Green acquired two adjacent buildings at the site for $160M in 2025 and plans to demolish them to make way for the new development. As part of the partnership, Mori purchased a 49% stake in the project at a gross valuation of $175M.
Building on a successful partnership: Mori has already invested alongside SL Green, acquiring stakes in One Vanderbilt through two transactions over the past two years, each valuing the tower at roughly $4.7 billion. The latest deal reinforces confidence in Manhattan’s top office assets.
Why now: Manhattan office leasing posted its strongest quarter since 2019 in early 2026, according to Savills, with demand concentrated in new and renovated trophy buildings. Reflecting that trend, SL Green’s One Vanderbilt and One Madison are both fully leased to finance and technology tenants.
➥ THE TAKEAWAY
Quality still wins: The project is another sign that the office market’s flight to quality remains firmly in place. As tenants gravitate toward newer, amenity-rich buildings, demand for premier space continues to outpace supply.
Around New York
➥ Commercial property owners are increasingly monetizing their rooftops through solar leases, creating new recurring revenue streams. (sponsored)
➥ Even if NYC enacts a rent freeze, qualifying landlords with distressed rent-stabilized properties could still receive one-time rent increases on vacant units under an existing city program.
➥ NYC’s Class B and C office market is recovering as conversions reduce supply and leasing improves, prompting investors to reenter before pricing rises further.
➥ NYC hotels are expected to raise room rates after a new union contract boosts labor costs by roughly 50% over eight years, passing higher expenses on to guests.
➥ NYC property taxes are set to rise as assessed values increase across residential and commercial properties, including apartments, offices and hotels.
➥ Rezonings and zoning approvals are increasingly driving NYC development deals, with investors paying premiums for sites that offer future density and housing potential.
➥ Seward Park Co-op tapped Lee & Associates to revamp its 50K-SF retail portfolio and attract new brands to the Lower East Side.
➥ The Mamdani administration clarified that reports of landlords bypassing NYC’s Rent Guidelines Board stem from a rarely used HPD loan-restructuring tool, not a new housing policy proposal.
➥ New York led the nation in job creation with 32,400 new jobs through April, driven by a turnaround in healthcare employment and improving labor market conditions.
➥ NYC’s SPEED initiative aims to cut affordable housing approval timelines by months, helping accelerate development, occupancy and preservation efforts citywide.
➥ NYC industrial vacancy rose for a fifth straight quarter to 7.5% as new deliveries added vacant space, despite steady leasing demand and positive absorption.
Follow the Money
| OFFICELOWER MANHATTANSaks Global has listed roughly 233K SF at its NYC headquarters in Brookfield Place as available while preparing to emerge from bankruptcy. |
| DEVELOPMENTGRAND CENTRALSL Green and Japan’s Mori Building are partnering to develop an 850K-SF office tower near Grand Central, betting on continued demand for top-tier Manhattan office space. |
| FINANCENEW YORKA PincusCo analysis identified the top lenders driving NYC multifamily refinancing and acquisition financing activity in 2025. |
| LANDPLAZA DISTRICTA pre-foreclosure suit against 110 East 55th Street could help clear a key piece of Gary Barnett’s growing Park Avenue development assemblage. |
| MULTIFAMILYROCKLAND COUNTYDwight Mortgage Trust provided a $55M construction loan for a 104-unit mixed-use multifamily project in Rockland County’s growing Kaser community. |
| RENTSNEW YORKNYC rents rose 4.1% year over year in April, outpacing the national average as Manhattan led all boroughs with 6.3% rent growth. |
| OFFICEBRYANT PARKUnited Overseas Bank took control of Midtown’s Bush Tower in a $58M transaction, highlighting growing lender takeovers of distressed office assets. |
| MULTIFAMILYWEST VILLAGERockrose secured a $404M Freddie Mac-backed refinance for the 472-unit Archive, a landmark apartment building in Manhattan’s West Village. |
| POLICYNEW YORKNYC brokers are divided over the city’s new pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes, with concerns centered on implementation and its potential impact on high-end housing demand. |
| DEVELOPMENTNEW YORKNew York’s top developers filed plans for 19M SF of new projects in 2025, pushing ahead with major multifamily and office developments despite tariff pressures and higher borrowing costs. |
| OFFICEPLAZA DISTRICTSL Green agreed to sell its 390,000 SF Midtown office tower at 10 East 53rd Street to Meadow Partners for $312M as part of its broader $2.5B asset disposition strategy. |
| OFFICEHUDSON YARDSA Related-led joint venture is nearing a $1.4B CMBS refinancing for the fully leased 10 Hudson Yards office tower, replacing debt that matures this month. |
📈 CHART OF THE WEEK

Midtown office rent growth is no longer uniform, with Hudson Yards and the Plaza District pulling ahead while Penn District’s growth has slowed.
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