97% vs. 50% Occupancy: Experience is The Divide
The Experience Dividing Line: Why 96% Occupancy Is the New Normal for Trophy Assets
According to Partners Real Estate's 2025 report, trophy assets are over 96% leased, while the broader market struggles. For example, Texas Tower (built in 2021) is 97% leased, and 609 Main (built in 2017) is 98.03% leased.
The gap is widening. And it's not closing.
This isn't a temporary flight to quality. It's a fundamental market reset. The buildings winning aren't just better located or better designed. They're delivering something the average building can't: measurable, scalable experience that turns tenants into long-term partners.
The dividing line is experience. And most of the market is on the wrong side of it.
The Data Tells a Different Story Than the Headlines
The numbers reveal a market splitting into two distinct categories.
While Class A+ buildings average 75% occupancy, the 10-city national average across all building types remains around 50%, underscoring the disparity in demand between premium and older properties. Even more striking: Trophy towers in major US cities are seeing over 90% of pre-pandemic usage on peak office days, led by Tuesdays at 94%.
In Manhattan, the split is even more pronounced. Overall availability fell to 17.7%, down from 20% last year. Trophy and Class A+ space is even tighter – under 12% citywide, and just 7.5% in Midtown.
The narrative says this is about location. About amenities. About which landlords spent the most on their lobbies.
The reality is more interesting. Buildings on the winning side aren't just offering better coffee or nicer gyms. They're operating as intelligent platforms. They know how their tenants actually use the building. They measure engagement in real time. They optimize services based on data, not assumptions.
They've closed the Experience Gap.
Market Dynamics Accelerating the Split
Trophy buildings are absorbing demand at a pace far outstripping the rest of the inventory. In 2025, Trophy assets captured 55 percent of all leasing activity despite representing a much smaller share of total supply Propmodo.
This isn't just preference. It's market sorting.
Since 2024, trophy and class A assets have accounted for roughly 70% of new originations, underscoring lenders' continued preference for high-quality buildings Avison Young. Capital flows to where performance is proven. Performance concentrates in buildings that deliver measurable experience.
Houston tells the same story. Trophy rents hit $46.03/sqft in Q4 2024, near the $47.83/sqft peak reached in late 2019. Texas Tower currently commands the highest quoted rates ($54/sqft NNN), which translates to about $75 per square foot (full service gross).
Premium buildings aren't just outperforming. They're operating in a different category entirely.
What the Experience Gap Actually Measures
The Experience Gap is the space between what tenants expect from a modern workplace and what most buildings actually deliver.
It's not about whether you have a fitness center. It's about whether tenants can actually book it when they need it. It's not about offering events. It's about whether those events drive the connections tenants are looking for.
Trophy assets haven't eliminated the Experience Gap. They've systematized closing it.
The results show up in tenant behavior. New and relocation deals accounted for nearly 59% of leasing volume in 2025, up sharply from prior years dominated by renewals and short-term extensions. Tenants that were waiting for clarity are now acting on it, and they're choosing buildings that deliver proven experience.
Lease terms tell the commitment story. Trophy and Class A leases now average close to a decade, reflecting growing confidence from both landlords and tenants that the worst volatility is behind them.
The Metrics That Actually Predict Performance
Most buildings are still managing to occupancy. By the time occupancy drops, you've already lost the tenant.
Buildings on the right side of the Experience Divide flipped the equation. They manage to engagement.
They track app adoption rates. Service resolution times. Event attendance. NPS scores that predict renewal likelihood before the lease conversation even starts. They know which tenants are at risk. They know which amenities drive retention and which ones sit empty.
Engagement is a leading indicator. It tells you what's coming before it shows up in your financials.
This is why trophy assets aren't just outperforming. They're operating with entirely different intelligence about their portfolios.
The Portfolio Implications
Class A office buildings have experienced positive net absorption in most major markets through early 2025, while Class B and C buildings continue seeing tenant departures.
If you manage a portfolio, experience delivery can't rely on sheer force of will. This is where platform thinking becomes essential. The buildings consistently hitting 90%+ occupancy aren't treating each property as an island. They're treating their portfolio as a connected ecosystem.
When you operate this way, insights from one building improve performance across all buildings. Your portfolio gets smarter faster because learning compounds.
The alternative is what most of the market is doing: reinventing experience one building at a time. It's slow. It's expensive. And it leaves you stuck on the wrong side of the divide.
Where The Market Goes From Here
Performance translates directly into pricing power.
Trophy office space in Hudson Yards and the Plaza District is commanding top dollar, nearly $160/sqft on upper floors, with some deals north of $200. This premium exists even as overall asking rents, including sublease space, dipped 2.1% YoY across the broader market.
Across Manhattan, renovated buildings command materially higher rents than their pre-renovation counterparts, with Trophy and upper-tier Class A assets capturing the greatest upside.
The divergence will continue. Experience-led assets command premium performance. Everything else fights for what's left.
This is The New Normal
The question isn't whether experience matters. The data already settled that. The question is whether you can deliver it at portfolio scale before your competitors do.
At HqO, we built the REX Platform to help CRE leaders close the Experience Gap systematically. Not building by building. Not through guesswork. But through proven frameworks that turn experience into measurable portfolio outcomes.
The buildings on the right side of the divide aren't there by accident. They're there because they treat experience as infrastructure, not amenity theater.
Ready to close your Experience Gap? Request a demo of the REX Platform and see how experience-led operators are redefining what trophy performance means.