You’d be right to guess that New York City is the epicenter of private equity.  But that, it turns out, is like saying that the cradle of golf is the UK, not Scotland, or that Giants territory is California, not San Francisco.  See the map below?

Not a single firm has its central office outside Manhattan, not even in trendy Brooklyn.  And in Manhattan, a single neighborhood — Midtown (mostly Midtown East) — is home to the lion’s share of firms.  That means that nearly all of the 286 firms in New York City — roughly 14% of all the private equity firms in the PrivateEquityFirms.com database — are within a single square mile.  A scattering of firms, Goldman Sachs Merchant, unsurprisingly, and Seaport Capital, are in the Financial District, downtown, and two small ones are even in Greenwich Village.  All alone on the Upper West Side resides DeMarseCo, on W End Avenue and 86th, a small firm focusing on information and media investments.  

Within Midtown, larger firms appear to congregate a bit closer to Central Park, where the prestige and rent increases block by block, whereas smaller firms appear to spread themselves south toward Murray Mill.

This map makes us wonder how disperse hedge funds and venture capital firms are across New York City.  Presumably, the hedge funds would have a greater presence in the Financial District, though with less exclusivity than Midtown has with private equity.  Venture capital firms, however, might be much more dispersed across Manhattan and the boroughs — well, perhaps not the Bronx or Queens or Staten Island, so much, but certainly Brooklyn, where the start-up scene is pretty active.

Each firm is color-coded according to its size.  Zoom in and out for a closer look.

Bottom line – Midtown reigns supreme while Downtown is relatively empty.

Most popular street – Park Avenue

Most concentrated area – Between 49th and 57th and Lexington and 5th.

Biggest surprise – No firms outside of Manhattan.

Key: Mega, Large, Middle-market, Small