The Manhattan Class A average asking rent took a step back in February, closing the month at $64.59 per square foot, down from $65.06 per square foot in January. It’s way too early to look at this as a trend. Likely, it is an anomaly as some higher priced availability across Midtown was leased and not included in the latest numbers. Read More
Last week, the statistic was all about sublet availability and its recent improvement. This week we turn to direct availability, or the space marketed directly by the landlord of building. Read More
Manhattan overall sublet availability took a nosedive in January to 8,880,280 square feet from 9,795,469 square feet in December. It has now fallen to its lowest figure since the 8,623,604 square feet recorded in August 2008—in other words, since just one month prior to the Lehman Brothers collapse of September 2008. At that time, financial services firms (and other industries) had already begun to dump large blocks of sublet space on the market. Read More
After being outmatched by both Midtown South and Downtown during most of 2011, Midtown got off the mat in January as its overall vacancy rate tumbled to 10.9 percent from 11.6 percent in December (its lowest figure since the 10.2 percent of December 2008). Read More
The number of Manhattan buildings with at least 100,000 square feet of (potential) availability (contiguous or noncontiguous) has climbed over the past year to 82 from 77, though it is down from 84 two years ago. The figures quoted are a catch-all including space currently vacant, known to have a tenant moving out or that is new construction with a completion date.
As the members of REBNY gather together this week, many will congratulate themselves on a fine year for leasing activity, despite the difficult global economy and the Beltway disaster otherwise known as the U.S. Congress.
All things considered, it was a decent year “leasing-wise” with activity from a wide variety of industries—even financial services, which seemed to always be teetering on the edge due to new regulations (still awaited) and mass layoffs (just beginning). Read More
At the close of 2011, the overall Manhattan vacancy rate eased to 10.9 percent, down 110 basis points from the 12.0 percent of one year ago, something landlords should be thankful for as the New Year begins. That said, 2010 saw an even better annual showing as that figure dropped 150 basis points (from 13.5 percent to 12.0 percent).
And though brokers have been relatively busy throughout the year grinding out some flashy and not-so-flashy leasing transactions, deals have generally consisted of tenants relocating to equal or less space or just renewing in place. Expansions and new tenants to the market remained a rather limited commodity. Overall direct availability managed to improve by 9.0 percent in 2011, dropping to 39.2 million square feet from 43.1 million square feet, its best figure since March 2009.
Overall sublet availability, meanwhile, slid by 10 percent in 2011, dropping to 9.8 million square feet from 10.9 million square feet, its best figure since September 2008. For all of Manhattan, expect some improvement to continue in 2012, due, in part, to the fact that no new buildings will be surfacing during the year. And, as we all know, the key to any significant improvement will be—all together now—jobs!
After the jump, a brief look at the 2011 performance and a 2012 forecast of the three major submarkets: Read More
Office jobs in New York City, defined as jobs in the professional and business services, financial activities, and information industries, have increased by 21,200 through October of this year.
That’s the good news. Read More
