General Atlantic anchors Related's 625 Madison Avenue tower
An anchor lease signed before a single floor is topped out is a financing signal as much as a leasing one.
General Atlantic has signed a lease for more than 150,000 square feet across five floors at Related Companies’ planned 53-story tower at 625 Madison Avenue, the private equity firm’s landlord confirmed. It is the first tenant commitment at the site, where Related has not yet finished demolition of the prior building. Veritas Capital Fund Management has also committed to roughly 93,000 square feet at the same tower, according to Bisnow, making General Atlantic the anchor rather than the sole occupant.
Why it matters
Landlords rarely disclose an anchor lease this far ahead of delivery unless they need the commitment to underwrite the rest of the building. Related brought Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in as a two-thirds equity partner on the project in July 2025, and a name-brand tenant locked in three years before completion is the kind of signed cash flow that construction lenders and equity partners want to see before releasing the next draw. For anyone underwriting new Manhattan office towers, the lesson is that speculative ground-up office now gets built lease-first, not spec-first, even in the tightest submarkets.
The numbers
General Atlantic’s lease covers more than 150,000 square feet, with Bisnow reporting the figure at roughly 152,000 square feet across five floors. The tower will rise 684 feet over 53 stories and deliver about 858,500 square feet of office space, per New York YIMBY reporting on the project’s filings. Asking rent was not disclosed in either source, though Commercial Observer noted Plaza District Class A space averaged $97.23 per square foot in the second quarter of 2026. Delivery is expected in 2029.
What’s next
Related still has most of the tower’s 858,500 square feet left to lease before it tops out, and the General Atlantic and Veritas commitments will be the comparables the next round of asking rents gets measured against. Watch our New York market coverage for the next tenant signing and for how the PIF partnership’s terms firm up as construction advances.