The Real Deal New York

From the July issue: The giant, 900,000-square-foot relocation and expansion lease that Japanese financial firm Nomura Holdings America signed in Midtown late last month punctuated an improved second quarter in the Manhattan office-leasing market.
That improvement came even as the national economy was battling high unemployment and slow growth, preliminary data from commercial services firm Cassidy Turley showed.
“Midtown, Midtown South and Downtown all recorded positive absorption in the second quarter,” said Robert Sammons, vice president of research at Cassidy Turley, citing a key indicator of a tightening leasing market.
That slight improvement bore out in the numbers: The availability rate — measuring vacant space and space that will be available in the next 12 months — for Manhattan fell by .6 points to 11.7 percent in the second quarter, and the average asking rent rose by $0.78 per square foot to $49.12 per foot, the preliminary figures from Cassidy Turley showed. [more]