Apple looking at leasing 200,000 square feet in New York City's 11 Penn Plaza

As part of its ongoing expansion, Apple is reportedly looking at leasing a large portion of the newly refurbished 11 Penn Plaza, in New York City.

Sources familiar with the matter say that Apple is looking to lease about 200,000 square feet of the building which has been recently rebranded as "Penn 11." Price is said to be in the "mid-$60s" per square foot — relatively inexpensive when compared to rents in newer towers.

The building is historic, and sits in the middle of some prime real estate. Build in 1923, it is in close proximity to Madison Square Garden, and is situated between West 31st and 32nd street, according to a report in the New York Post on Wednesday.

Apple previously sought the former James A. Farley Post Office, but lost out in bidding to FaceBook. Both Penn 11 and the Farley building have been recently renovated by Vornado.

Apple has been on the hunt for Manhattan office space for months. In February 2019, reports claimed the tech giant was in advanced negotiations for a 60,000-square-foot location at the upscale 55 Hudson Yards. More recent rumblings in August 2019, which first mentioned Apple's interest in Farley, suggested that the company was looking for up to 750,000 square feet of space in the city.

Along with seven Apple Store locations in Manhattan, Apple currently leases 45,000 square feet of office space at 100-104 Fifth Avenue.

5 Comments

jd_in_sb 1599 comments · 14 Years

About 4 years ago

Excuse my stupidity but if Apple designs in California and builds in China and India, why do they need 750,000 sqft in NYC?

Soli 9981 comments · 9 Years

jd_in_sb said:

Excuse my stupidity but if Apple designs in California and builds in China and India, why do they need 750,000 sqft in NYC?

1) The new plant in India is probably for lower tariffs for their Indian sales. I doubt you'd see one of those devices in the US.

2) Apple is much more than a HW company, and even if they were you still need a lot of employees to support your devices. I see that in 2012 it was reported that Apple had 70k employees worldwide with 48k of them in the US. If that percentage still holds and going by the 2018 report of 132k employees that's 91k employees in the US alone and none of them are counted as part of the supply chain workers at Foxconn, Wistron, etc.

3) What specific purpose(s) for this specific space? No idea, but I believe that Apple needs it.

spice-boy 1450 comments · 8 Years

jd_in_sb said:

Excuse my stupidity but if Apple designs in California and builds in China and India, why do they need 750,000 sqft in NYC?

No question is stupid, asking question keeps us informed. NYC is attracting tech companies because the people they hire want to live here. I'm just glad it is not in my neighborhood we already got Facebook and Google tools running wild.

mike1 3431 comments · 10 Years

Location will help attract many potential employees. Proximity is a short walk from Penn Station, easier commute for folks from Long Island and NJ.

Hank2.0 151 comments · 5 Years

jd_in_sb said:

Excuse my stupidity but if Apple designs in California and builds in China and India, why do they need 750,000 sqft in NYC?

It is inevitable that the enormously wealthy leaders of tech will migrate with their supporting minions to the exclusive Elysium that is Manhattan. Besides, there is more room in New York what with all the people moving to Florida :D

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