Fintech Firms Are Signing for More Manhattan Space. What Webull's and Octaura's New Leases Say About the Office Market
Webull is expanding its footprint by 81% with a 10-year lease at 140 Broadway, Octaura took a full floor at 111 West 33rd Street, and Catalyst IOS doubled its Midtown East headquarters. What the deals, and Manhattan's tightest office supply since 2020, mean for growing New York companies hunting for space.
NEW YORK — The first days of November brought a cluster of Manhattan office deals from finance and fintech companies that have one thing in common: they are taking more space, not less. For founders who will be shopping for their own next office in 2027, the details are a useful read on where the market is.
The Deals
Webull at 140 Broadway. The online brokerage has signed a 10-year lease for 41,781 square feet at 140 Broadway in the Financial District, Commercial Observer reported. Webull will take the entire 41st floor and part of the 40th, relocating from 44 Wall Street. According to tenant broker Colliers, the move expands Webull’s footprint by 81%. The asking rent wasn’t disclosed, but Colliers puts the average office asking rent in Lower Manhattan at $64.88 per square foot in the third quarter. The New York Business Journal reported that the recently renovated building is owned by Union Investment Real Estate. The building, completed in 1968, is the one with Isamu Noguchi’s Red Cube out front.
“For a company at this stage of growth, an office decision is about anticipating where the business is headed,” Colliers’ Robert Gallucci, who represented Webull, said in a statement quoted by Commercial Observer.
Octaura at 111 West 33rd Street. Octaura Holdings, an electronic trading, data and analytics provider, signed a 10-year lease for the entire 17th floor, 28,914 square feet, at Empire State Realty Trust’s tower near Herald Square, according to Commercial Observer. An ESRT spokesperson put the asking rent at $81 per square foot. Octaura currently lists its headquarters at 5 Penn Plaza, and it wasn’t immediately clear whether it would leave that space. Instacart took 26,134 square feet in the same building in July.
Catalyst IOS at 800 Third Avenue. The investment manager, which buys industrial outdoor storage sites, is doubling its headquarters at SL Green’s Midtown East tower from 6,000 to 12,000 square feet, taking the full 35th floor on a five-year term, Commercial Observer reported. The firm has 37 employees and plans to move in by the end of the year. Colliers puts average Class A asking rents in the Grand Central submarket at $82.64 per square foot in the third quarter.
The Bigger Picture: Less Space to Go Around
These deals land in a market that has tightened steadily. According to Colliers research summarized by Commercial Observer, Manhattan leasing totaled 10.06 million square feet in the third quarter, 16.2% above the five-year quarterly average. It was the fourth straight quarter above 10 million square feet, something that hadn’t happened since 2002.
Available supply fell to 64.76 million square feet, the lowest since August 2020, and the availability rate dropped to 12.4%. That was the 10th consecutive quarter of tightening, the longest stretch since 2007. Colliers also said Class A pricing reached a new high and that Midtown became the first major Manhattan market to return to its pre-pandemic availability level.
“The Manhattan office market’s recovery continued at a rapid pace throughout the summer and into the early days of autumn,” Franklin Wallach of Colliers said in a statement.
What It Means for Growing Companies
Start the search earlier than you think. When supply shrinks, the best full-floor options in good buildings go first. A company that needs to move in mid-2027 should be touring and talking to a tenant broker now, not in the spring.
Lower Manhattan is the relative value play. Colliers’ Lower Manhattan average of $64.88 a foot sits well below the $82.64 it reports for Class A space around Grand Central, and the $81 asking rent at 111 West 33rd. Webull’s move shows a growing company can get a full floor and room to expand in a renovated FiDi tower. For a startup watching every dollar, the trade-off between neighborhood and price is real.
Plan for growth inside the lease. All three companies sized up rather than down. Webull’s broker framed the decision around space “they could grow into.” If you’re signing a 5- or 10-year term, ask about expansion rights, rights of first offer on adjacent space, and sublease flexibility in case your headcount plan changes.
Shorter terms exist. Catalyst’s five-year deal is a reminder that not every lease has to be a decade. Smaller companies often trade a slightly higher rent for a shorter commitment, which can be worth it when the business is changing fast.
The Bottom Line
By Colliers’ numbers, Manhattan has less available office space than at any point since 2020, and growing companies are competing for what’s left. The fintech deals this week are a small sample, but they point the same way as the citywide numbers. If an office move is on your 2027 plan, start the search now.