Vacancy high, demand low in Westchester office market 

1133 Westchester AvenueIt’s a great time to be an office tenant looking for space in Westchester, according to the Wall Street Journal. The vacancy rate is high — at 18.2 percent according to third-quarter data — and demand is low, as rents average about $22 per square foot.

The Journal cites a lease inked by law firm Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker as a good illustration of these circumstances. The firm signed for 125,000 square feet at 1133 Westchester Avenue in White Plains for just $26 per square foot, and received eight months of free rent, saving it $600,000 annually compared to what it paid at 3 Gannett Drive in Harrison, N.Y.

Those tenant-friendly terms have become standard for landlord RPW Group, which has worked to lease the 600,000-square-foot office campus, formerly fully occupied by IBM, that it acquired just 20 percent occupied for $76 million in 2007. The complex is now 85 percent full.

But the Westchester office market is still reeling following IBM’s departure in 2006 and Starwood’s departure from 1133 Westchester Avenue and a nearby complex to Stamford, Conn. in 2009. That means tenants, like Wilson Elser, are getting friendly leases. “In these economic times, landlords are bending a little more,” said RPW CEO Robert Weisz. [WSJ]