The financial sector has always reigned supreme in New York City, but CoStar’s annual ranking of commercial office leases in 2014 shows a competitor hot on its tracks, reports Crain’s NY. The city’s booming tech industry saw an 8.4% rise in square footage last year, inking deals for 1.3M SF, and occupying 14M SF total. This puts tech leasing activity second only to financial services. Tech giants leading the charge include Google, occupying 250k SF; Noodle, Samsung and Indeed, each with 100k SF; and Amazon, Buzzfeed and Twitter.
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Even more interesting are the financial sector’s numbers by comparison. Although it represented 24.7% of all leasing activity in 2014, it actually experienced a 3.2% decrease. Meanwhile, tech is steadily growing, with employment increasing 6.4% year-over-year and 1,800 jobs added each month. Could this mean the adolescent tech lion is preparing to take down the leader of the pride? JLL executive vice president Jim Wenk offered Commercial Observer some explanations for the tech sector’s NYC growth. He said startups get venture capital funding, creating jobs, and requiring more space; and successful West Coast companies open offices in New York.
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