AI Firm Commits to 109 KSF in Manhattan

EliseAI has signed a 10-year headquarters lease at 401 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The AI firm will occupy about 109,000 square feet at the eight-story, 240,000-square-foot tower that is owned by the Chetrit Organization.

The deal is only one of the several corporate office relocations seen lately in the borough. EliseAI will move from 33 E 33rd St., a 156,000-square-foot office building rising a few blocks from the future location. In 2023, the firm expanded the leased space to nearly 27,000 square feet under a five-year agreement, Commercial Observer reported at the time.

JLL’s Evan Margolin, Valentin Stobetsky, Calum Waddell, Will McGarry and Hale King represented EliseAI in the current lease. Newmark’s Brian Waterman, David Waterman and Alex Kesseler negotiated on behalf of the owner.

A landmark office building in Manhattan

The landmark 401 Fifth Avenue, formerly the Tiffany & Co. building, was designed in 1905 by McKim, Mead & White, with noted Gilded Age architect Sanford White leading the design team. The property, distinguished by its Italian Renaissance facade, underwent cosmetic renovation in 2013.

Chetrit acquired 401 Fifth Avenue back in 2004 for $60 million from Stahl Real Estate. The property became subject in 2015 to a CMBS loan in the amount of $95 million, with a due date in the summer of 2026, according to Yardi Matrix data. The note, originated by Wells Fargo, has been on the special servicer’s watch list since 2024.

NYC office revival owes much to AI

The deal is more evidence of the revival of the New York office market, which had been battered by the pandemic and low rates of office visits by workers. Now, according to Placer.ai, workers are close to 2019 levels of coming to the office in NYC, only 19.6 percent less in December 2025 than the same month six years earlier.

Tech, media and information firms are key in driving the trend, accounting for roughly a third of the city’s most expensive office leases last year. Other recent Manhattan deals involving tech include Shopify expanding at 85 Tenth Ave. and Monday.com leasing at 225-233 Park Avenue S.

In a recent Manhattan lease that involved AI companies specifically, Distyl AI signed a 15,038-square-foot lease at 135 Madison Ave. with Koeppel Rosen, the leasing and management partner for building owner Rosen Equities. That office property is in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park submarket.

Manhattan had the second-lowest vacancy rate in November among the top 25 office markets in the U.S., at 13.4 percent, according to a Yardi Matrix report. The index was down 310 basis points year-over-year.