Bank of Montreal Inks 82K SF at Durst’s 151 West 42nd Street

Bank of Montreal, a global financial and investment institution, has leased 82,422 square feet of office space at The Durst Organization’s 151 West 42nd Street, the latest monthly Manhattan office figures report from CBRE show. 

It is unclear when the lease was signed. The Canadian banking giant had taken over 200,000 square feet across six floors of the Times Square building back in 2019, Crain’s New York Business reported at the time. 

Rocco Romeo, Thomas Bow and Nora Caliban from Durst are listed as the brokers for the building. Durst did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The asking rent and the length of the lease were not available. The CBRE January 2026 office report noted an average asking rent of $85.08 per square foot for Midtown office space. 

The CBRE report also noted several other significant leases that happened during the first month of the year. Those deals were J.P. Morgan Chase expanding by 139,332 square feet at Five Manhattan West, artificial intelligence firm Datasite inking 75,836 square feet at 3 Columbus Circle, Centerbridge Capital Partners signing a 75,826-square-foot lease at 345 Park Avenue, and advisory firm Withum taking 57,004 square feet at 1411 Broadway. 

Leasing activity in Manhattan topped 2 million square feet in January — the seventh consecutive month activity exceeded the 2 million mark — according to the CBRE data. Manhattan’s office availability rate was 15.5 percent for the month, down 300 basis points year-over-year. 

Midtown was the most active sector of the borough with a total of 1.47 million square feet of leasing activity. Midtown South came in second with leasing activity of 384,000 square feet, and Lower Manhattan saw 244,000 square feet of leasing activity. 

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.