By Sarah Trefethen
Early Q3 numbers show a Midtown office market that is recovering, but erratic.
Average asking rents for Class A office space in Midtown at the end of October were $78.57 psf, and overall asking rents averaged $71.84 psf, according to Cassidy Turley. Colliers International has average asking rents at $69.36 psf and average taking rents at $58.15, with the gap between ask and take increasing slightly.
These stats all represent and increase since the start of the year. Cassidy Turley highlighted a $1.36 increase in the Class A midtown average asking rent in October alone, driven by new space coming available at 650 Madison and an increase in the asking rents at 280 Park.
But behind these numbers lies a wide range in performance between submarkets and individual buildings. The Cassidy Turley averaged was derived for a set of numbers that ranged from $45 to $175 psf, according to Richard Persichetti, Cassidy Turley’s VP for research and marketing.
Persichetti didn’t say the range was unusual, but acknowledged it was a wide spread.
Concession packages are going down on Park Avenue but staying steady near Grand Central, Joseph Harbert, Colliers’ president for the Eastern region, said at a press briefing at the end of October.
Total midtown leasing activity in Q3 was 3,120,607 s/f, according to Colliers, a drop from an “exceptional” Q2 that saw more than 5 million s/f of space leased in Midtown.
