Castle Hook to pay $21.2M a year for Madison Ave penthouse

Castle Hook Partners will pay as much as $21.2 million a year under a reported 15-year lease for approximately 53,000 square feet on the top two floors of 625 Madison Avenue. The level of rent is believed to be the highest for an office lease recorded in New York.

People familiar with the agreement provided a range of $350 to $400 per square foot annually for the penthouse space. At $400 per square foot the annual rent would be about $21.2 million; at $350 it would be about $18.6 million. The lease covers roughly 53,000 square feet across the tower’s top two floors.

The space is in a new 53-story tower developed by Related Companies that overlooks Central Park. The building is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2029, and Castle Hook is expected to occupy the penthouse floors when construction finishes.

Castle Hook Partners was founded in 2016 by David Rogers, a former executive at Soros Fund Management. The firm manages about $11 billion in assets and has roughly 35 employees, according to its most recent regulatory filing. The firm currently operates from the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue.

The reported 15-year lease exceeds an earlier New York office rental benchmark from earlier this year, when an international family office agreed to pay an average of $327.50 per square foot over a 10-year Midtown lease.

The parties have not issued formal statements; the terms were described by people familiar with the negotiations.