Midtown vacancy rate increases, with more space to come

Midtown Class A office space had a vacancy rate of 12.2 percent by April of this year, the highest rate since August 1996, according to Colliers ABR. Colliers reported that there is 7.8 million square feet of sublease space available in Class A buildings, the most since the company started keeping records in December 1991. Of Midtown’s 222 million square feet of office space, 30 million square feet is available, said John Powers, CB Richard Ellis’ tri-state chairman. And new commercial buildings, like 11 Times Square, which is scheduled to open in a year, and 510 Madison Avenue, will add to the glut of office space. CBRE said in March the amount of actively marketed space that is vacant or will become available within a year in Midtown reached 14.2 percent. [NYO] and [NYT]