LinkedIn Expands at World’s Most Famous Office Building

Empire State Building

By Keith Loria, Contributing Editor

LinkedIn Corp. will expand its New York City headquarters, thanks to a 130,000-square-foot lease it signed with Empire State Realty Trust, Inc., bringing the company’s total occupancy to 280,000 square feet on seven floors in the historic Empire State Building.

The expansion will see LinkedIn, which first moved into the building in 2011, now encompassing the entire third and 26th floors.

“We are very happy that our work at the Empire State Building has created the flexibility to accommodate LinkedIn’s expansion needs at the World’s Most Famous Building,” Thomas Durels, ESRT’s executive vice president & director of leasing and operations, said in a prepared statement. “People who work here are able to enjoy the Empire State Building’s urban campus and state–of-the-art amenities, which include six unique on-site dining and cuisine options with more to follow and the city’s largest tenant-only fitness center and conference center.”

According to CBRE Group’s latest Manhattan Office Market report, finance, law and tech industries dominated the city’s office occupancy, with tech totaling 6.3 percent of the entire Manhattan office market.

“The tech sector has evolved to the point where firms overall are considering wider geographic parameters,” Sacha Zarba, CBRE’s executive vice president, said in the report. “However, location preferences remain specific depending on where they are in a company’s life cycle. Start-ups tend to prefer the Flatiron, Union Square and SoHo submarkets, while companies in growth or mature phases tend to favor the Madison Square Park/Park Avenue South, Chelsea and Hudson Square submarket.”

Sacha Zarba, Lauren Crowley, and Greg Tosko of CBRE represented LinkedIn in the lease negotiations. Landlord representation was provided by Ryan O. Kass, Fred C. Posniak and Shanae Ursini of ESRT.

Other noteworthy tenants of the Empire State Building include Shutterstock, Coty, Bulova, Global Brands Group, HNTB Corp., Skanska, and Media General.