The Real Deal New York

From the June issue: The Downtown office market, a hot topic at a major summit held last
month on the World Trade Center site, has held up better than the other
two Manhattan markets in the current recession, but experts said that
will change as beleaguered financial firms return space to the market.
Leasing volume rose in the Downtown market while falling in both
Midtown and Midtown South, the most recent report from commercial
services firm CB Richard Ellis showed. And while all three markets
showed declines in average asking rents and increases in availability
rates, the Downtown results were the healthiest, the survey, which was
released last month, said. In Manhattan overall, average asking rents fell to $55.95 per square foot in April, a 2.4 percent drop from the month earlier, and the availability rate — which measures space being actively marketed that will be available within 12 months for tenant build-out — rose to 13.8 percent, up from 13.3 percent in March, CBRE data showed.