From the March issue: Although they may be just beguiling mirages that will fade upon approach, there are some submarkets where asking rents have jumped in the past months, a trend that runs counter to the dour predictions from Manhattan leasing brokers that taking rents won’t rise for more than a year.

In the Meatpacking District, for example, Charles Blaichman’s CB Developers High Line building that remains under construction at 450 West 14th Street has asking rents above $100 per square foot. The space was added to the availability list in January, driving up average rates in the district, the most recent figures from commercial firm Jones Lang LaSalle show.

And in the Union Square submarket, the average asking rent rose by 14 percent with the addition of space at 300 Park Avenue South, commercial firm CB Richard Ellis’ latest report said.
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The High Line Building, at 450 West 14th Street, is starting to come
into focus and is expected to get its glass curtain wall next month. CB
Developers’ 15-story tower will have 78,000 square feet of office
space, of which Helmut Lang has already taken two floors, 7,636 square
feet of retail space at the base, and 4,000 square feet of space in the
basement. The five-story base of the building is a landmarked former
meat storage facility. The High Line park runs above the retail section
and below the offices. The office floors are being marketed by Newmark
Knight Frank, with asking rents in the mid-$70s to mid-$80s per square foot, and Winick
Realty is marketing the retail space, where the ground-floor asking
rent is $300 a foot. [more]