How's the Market?
It's a frequent question from clients and other office space market participants looking for real-time information rather than the media's talking points - where it seems to always be both the best of times and the worst of times.
To help answer this question and illustrate the varied perspectives of Midtown office tenants, I thought it would be best to share several active assignments that we're working on:
1) We're currently exploring multiple near-term relocations for clients driven by their:
- inability to renew as a result of a building repositioning
- desire to find similar space for a better price or better space at their current spend
- dissatisfaction with their building, Landlord, or Location
2) Our lease renewal pipeline has remained active as well, as companies:
- aim to leverage comparable opportunities for more favorable rents
- look to avoid the disruption of moving
- continue kicking the can down the road as they don't have enough visibility to commit for longer term deals.
3) On the sublease front, we're working on two assignments to find subtenants for clients whose employees have not returned to the office at all, and two other assignments for companies who still need an office but for fewer people.
On one of our larger sublease assignments in Midtown West, we've progressively subleased a 75,000 square foot block of space with only 15k SF of that block remaining.
4) We are engaged in the early planning stages for multiple firms facing lease expirations in the next 12-24 months, with one team looking to downsize by ~50% and the other planning to growth by ~200%.
Manhattan is one of the most competitive places to do business and while it may be tough to get a general read on pricing & vacancy, the range of activity that we're seeing from tenants reinforces the centrality that an office plays to an organization's decision making.
Until next month,
Ben
Ben Blumenthal
Principal Broker | Noah & Co.
For the rest of our October 2022 Newsletter, click here.