Rosen Equities Sees New AI Tenant at Manhattan Office

December 3, 2025

Brokerage New York News Northeast More Office

Courier Health signed a similar lease at the property in September.

Distyl AI Inc. signed a 15,038-square-foot lease at 135 Madison Ave. with Koeppel Rosen, the leasing and management partner for Rosen Equities, the building’s owner. The new tenant will be occupying the 10th floor of the property, to support its expansion.

Koeppel Rosen did not disclose the length of the lease agreement, though the asking rent was $52 per square foot. In September, Courier Health entered a similar agreement, paying the same asking rent for the property’s third floor, Commercial Observer reported. This is below the average for the area, which Yardi Matrix lists as $64.93 per square foot.

Terry & Tench Co. designed the asset in 1911. The building features 13 stories and 175,200 square feet in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park submarket. Distyl AI will be joining a tenant roster including WeWork, Blender Workspace and Flos. Currently the ninth floor of the building remains unoccupied, with 15,038 square feet available for lease.

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The office building is listed as pet-friendly. Recent renovations included upgrades to the lobby, freight and passenger elevators, and tenant-controlled HVAC. At the property, WeWork also offers rentable spaces such as wellness rooms, private phone booths and meeting rooms. Blender Workspace has additional rentable office and event spaces in the building.

Max Koeppel, director of leasing at Koeppel Rosen represented the owner in the agreement, while Savills represented Distyl AI.

“The space was fully built out and furnished, which made it desirable to Distyl and allowed for a quick move-in,” Koeppel told Commercial Property Executive. “It was great to work with Distyl and the Savills team to arrange this full-floor lease at 135 Madison.”

In Midtown Manhattan, 135 Madison Ave. is within one mile of Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal, and close to the 33rd St. subway station. Also close by is the Empire State Building, Madison Square Park and Herald Square, as well as multiple dining and retail options.

AI leasing activity in NYC ramps up

Koeppel commented that leasing activity in the market has picked up. Overall, Manhattan remains one of the top-performing metros in the nation for office investment, the latest Yardi Matrix office report shows. The vacancy rate was at 12.8 percent as of September, below the national average of 18.6 percent.

AI companies are starting to ramp-up their presence in the borough. Through September, companies with a core AI component leased approximately 486,000 square feet in Manhattan, Bisnow shared from a Savills report. This is a significant increase from the 414,000 square feet that was signed in 2024 and 265,000 square feet in 2023, pointing to a rising demand.

In April 2025, AI work platform, Workday expanded its lease agreement at the Empire State Building. The lease added an additional 12,338 square feet, bringing the total space to 39,069 square feet at the landmark.

This past summer, AI platform AlphaSense relocated its global headquarters to CommonWealth Partners’ Hudson Commons at 441 Ninth Ave. The company entered a 10-year, 50,000-square-foot lease in June. AlphaSense currently has around 500 local employees, and will be able to expand its space in the building to 100,000 square feet.