Insurance and asset management giant Aegon Ltd. has picked 125 W. 57th St. for its new U.S. headquarters, signing a lease for 20,600 square feet in one of the latest signs that Manhattan's office market is running hotter than it has in decades. The deal lands on Billionaires' Row, a corridor historically dominated by ultra-luxury residential towers, and comes as landlords across Midtown report a wave of leasing activity even amid pandemic-era work-from-home habits, political upheaval, and wars overseas.
Aegon Picks a Boutique Tower Over Bigger Rivals
Aegon signed its lease after Anchorage Capital Advisors, according to the New York Post, with Cushman & Wakefield's Barry Zeller and David Downey representing the company, which is rebranding itself as Transamerica Inc. The 265,000-square-foot project at 125 W. 57th St., developed by Alchemy-ABR, has now filled more than 75% of the building in just two years, having previously attracted Kingdon Capital Management, Jadian Capital, and Eldridge Industries — the Todd Boehly-led investment firm that signed for roughly 20,000 square feet in April, as Hoodline reported in its report on Eldridge's move. JLL's Mitchell Konsker, Kristen Morgan, Christine Colley, Kate Roush and Dan Turkewitz represented the landlord in the Aegon deal.
The building's ground-floor retail space has also found a taker: Ten Five Hospitality, the group behind Mother Wolf restaurants in other cities, has leased the space and plans a new dining concept there, per the same Post report. Co-developer Alchemy-ABR's momentum at the tower followed a $321 million refinancing package secured in May from JPMorgan Chase and Hudson Bay Capital, replacing a $250 million construction loan and valuing the tower at over $600 million once fully leased, according to The Real Deal. The site itself carries an unusual institutional history: it was acquired in 2021 for $130 million from Calvary Baptist Church, which had operated there since 1883 and retained ownership of the tower's six-story base for a new sanctuary, as detailed by Commercial Observer.
Across Town, 1411 Broadway Cashes In on a $100 Million Makeover
A few blocks away in the Garment District, landlord Swig Company has signed three leases totaling 182,000 square feet at 1411 Broadway, its 1.3 million-square-foot tower on West 39th Street that has undergone $100 million in modernization, with Hines serving as asset and property manager, the Post reports. Zeta Global is doubling its Manhattan footprint by leasing 50,522 square feet at the tower, relocating from 3 Park Avenue, where the marketing technology and AI data company had kept its headquarters on the 33rd floor since February 2019, according to the company's SEC filings.
South Korean cosmetics firm Amorepacific is also relocating to 1411 Broadway, leasing an identical 50,522 square feet and moving from 1407 Broadway just across the street, where it had occupied 23,710 square feet on the second floor under a 10-year lease signed in late 2018 for its U.S. headquarters, per Commercial Observer's earlier coverage. CBRE's Paul Amrich, Neil King, Emily Chabrier and Kelly Tipton represented Swig Company in the leasing round. Meanwhile, Republic Clothing Corp. converted a sublease into an 81,000-square-foot direct lease at the same building, further filling out a tower that now sits at 90% occupancy after seeing more than 566,000 square feet of leasing activity over the past 18 months.
A Storied Site Turns Into a Modern Leasing Magnet
1411 Broadway carries its own layer of Midtown history, sitting on the former site of the original Metropolitan Opera House, which opened in 1883 and was razed in 1967 after the company relocated to Lincoln Center, according to historical records shared on Facebook. The current tower's asking rents range between $72 and $110 per square foot, and Swig Company's modernization push follows a $450 million refinancing loan from Bank of China secured in 2020 alongside joint venture partner Ivanhoé Cambridge, which acquired its 49.9% stake in the property in 2012 for more than $360 million, per PincusCo.
The leasing burst at both towers fits into a much larger citywide pattern. Manhattan accumulated 22.8 million square feet of office leasing in the first half of 2026, its strongest first-half performance since 2002, according to Colliers data cited in Hoodline's report on the surge, JAMS jumps to 3 Times Square. JLL data separately found that Manhattan recorded 313 office leases starting at $100 per square foot or higher in 2025, including 28 deals reaching or exceeding $200 per square foot, a trend Hoodline previously tracked in coverage of a rent record on 57th Street.
Not far from 1411 Broadway, another sign of tenant churn played out in March, when apparel wholesaler NYC Alliance signed an 11-year lease to relocate to 50,000 square feet at 1441 Broadway, leaving behind roughly 25,000 square feet of showroom and office space at 1411 Broadway, a move Hoodline covered in its report on the relocation. Together, the deals across both buildings underscore what the Post's Steve Cuozzo describes as companies maintaining confidence in Manhattan despite the pandemic's work-from-home impact, the election of a Marxist mayor, and wars in Europe and the Middle East.
