Manhattan Office Leasing Dropped By Almost 40% In January

Manhattan office leasing got off to a slow start in 2024.

Just less than 2.3M SF of office leases were signed in Manhattan last month, according to a new report from Colliers. That figure is 39.4% below the previous month and 50% of the activity in January 2023.

A few large leases boosted figures for the month, with law firm King & Spalding signing a 175K SF lease at Vornado Realty Trust’s 1290 Sixth Ave. and luxury jeweler David Yurman renewing its 154K SF at Hudson Square Properties’ 200 Hudson St.

Intercontinental Exchange’s 143K SF lease at Fisher Brothers’ 1345 Sixth Ave., the Archdiocese of New York’s 142K SF lease at The Feil Organization’s 488 Madison Ave. and Evercore’s 95K SF at Fisher Brothers’ Park Avenue Plaza tower were also among the biggest deals signed in January.

Asking rents in the borough were 6.1% below the March 2020 average of $79.47 per SF, hitting $74.64 per SF last month and continuing a downward trend. The average asking rent in December was $74.81 per SF and $75.07 in January 2023. 

Manhattan’s availability rate for office space remained at its all-time high, hovering at 17.9% for the second month in a row. More sublease space was taken off the market, as the supply tightened by 1.4% from the previous year. 

Availability in Midtown South stayed flat at 18.7%, while Midtown’s availability rate ticked up to 16%. Conditions tightened slightly in downtown, hitting 20.8% availability in January compared to 20.9% in December.

Asking rents in Midtown and Midtown South were largely unchanged, but Lower Manhattan's average asking rate of $57.45 per SF was down more than $2 a foot year-over-year.