Peter Decheser
Summer of Slow! The Numbers Don't Lie—Hot Months Were Bitterly Cold
The Manhattan office space market has increasingly come to resemble the 1999 film Office Space, with rumors of impending layoffs, nervous employees, and frustrated brokers taking copy machines to empty fields and viciously assaulting them with baseball bats.
O.K., that last part isn’t true. But still, this summer has been a bummer! In July, Manhattan’s overall office vacancy rate hit 7.3 percent, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Same time last year, it was 5.8 percent. Asking rents have continued to creep up, but the numbers have been rendered essentially meaningless by a bonanza of concessions from landlords. (You take this space, I’ll give you one year’s free rent and dinner for two at the Four Seasons!)
At the end of July, Colliers ABR’s Robert Sammons—unafraid to look the fearsome ogre in the eye—predicted the vacancy rate would rise to 10. read more »
