Number of Manhattan commercial deals on pace to set record

328 sales worth $30 billion transacted through September: JLL

Scott Latham and 245-249 West 17th Street in Chelsea
Scott Latham and 245-249 West 17th Street in Chelsea

Although the average Manhattan commercial building sale shrunk in size year-over-year, the number of sales so far this year is on pace to break a 2007 record high, according to a third-quarter report from JLL.

Manhattan saw 328 commercial deals worth $30 billion through September. That marks a 47 percent jump from the 223 sales worth $30.2 billion recorded for all of last year. In 2007, there were 346 deals valued at roughly $48.5 billion.

Scott Latham, vice chair at JLL, told the Wall Street Journal that landlords are hanging onto properties for longer periods of time, and seeking partners instead of selling.

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In one of the priciest commercial deals of the year, American Realty Capital’s New York REIT entered contract in July to purchase Twitter’s Manhattan headquarters at 245-249 West 17th Street in Chelsea for $335 million from Savanna Capital Partners, as previously reported. 

A preliminary third-quarter report released last month showed that there were only seven leasing deals exceeding $100 per square foot in the third quarter, compared with 17 each in the first and second quarters, as The Real Deal reported. The report noted, however, that the lower deal figure could increase as confidential deal terms leak out. [WSJ, 2nd item]Mark Maurer