On May 11, 2026, RXR listed 325,000 rentable square feet of contiguous office space at 1285 Avenue of the Americas. The block spans the third through seventh floors of the 42-story tower. Floor plates range from 28,963 square feet to 75,865 square feet. This is the largest block of contiguous space currently marketed in Midtown Manhattan.
RXR acquired the building in 2015 for $1.2 billion, per property records. The firm has since invested heavily in capital improvements. The building sits on the full western block of Sixth Avenue between 51st and 52nd Streets. Its location on Corporate Row places it among financial institutions, media firms, and professional services tenants.
The offering targets organizations seeking to consolidate operations into a single headquarters. Floor heights of 12 feet 3 inches slab-to-slab support modern hybrid and creative configurations. The building offers 24/7 access, on-site management, and concourse-level connectivity to Rockefeller Center. Tenants can configure floors as-built or demolished to suit specific needs.
This listing arrives at a moment when large-scale, high-performance office space is increasingly scarce. New construction in Manhattan has slowed to a trickle. The last major office tower deliveries—One Vanderbilt, 30 Hudson Yards, 55 Hudson Yards—are largely leased. Tenants seeking 300,000-plus contiguous square feet have few options.
Flight-to-quality has been the dominant narrative in office leasing since 2020. Class A buildings with modern amenities, strong transit access, and institutional ownership have captured the vast majority of leasing volume. According to CBRE, Manhattan Class A office vacancy stood at 14.2% in Q1 2026, compared to 22.8% for Class B. The spread is widening.
RXR is betting that the 325,000-RSF block will attract a single tenant or a lead anchor. The building's floor plates are among the largest in Midtown. The tower's design by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill provides the modernist corporate aesthetic that large financial and legal tenants demand. The building's retail includes Chop't, Naya, and Mastro's Steakhouse.
The timing is not without risk. Manhattan office availability remains elevated. Sublease space, while declining, still totals over 15 million square feet. Asking rents for Class A space in Midtown averaged $82.50 per square foot in Q1 2026, per Savills. That is 8% above the market average but still below the $90-plus peaks of 2019.
Tenants are taking longer to commit. Lease terms have shortened. Decision cycles have stretched from 12 months to 18 months or more. A block of this size requires a tenant with a strong balance sheet and a long-term view of New York City office occupancy. The pool of such tenants is limited.
RXR's strategy mirrors that of other institutional owners: concentrate capital in trophy assets and market them as irreplaceable. SL Green, Vornado, and Boston Properties have all pursued similar plays. The winners in this cycle will be buildings that can command premium rents and retain creditworthy tenants. The losers will be those that cannot.
The 325,000-RSF block at 1285 Avenue of the Americas is a test case. If RXR secures a tenant at or near asking rent, it will validate the flight-to-quality thesis at scale. If the space languishes, it will signal that even premier Midtown assets face headwinds. The market is watching.