From left: Vornado’s Craig Panzirer, 11 Penn Plaza and Cushman & Wakefield’s Dale Schlather

The priciest office lease deal signed in the first quarter of 2013 was Macy’s $620-plus million renewal at 11 Penn Plaza, according to The Real Deal’s first-ever quarterly ranking of Manhattan’s most valuable leases.  [more]

Joseph Chetrit and 550 Madison Avenue (credit: PropertyShark)

First-quarter Manhattan office deals were at their lowest levels since 2009, but the low numbers were caused by a rush of fourth-quarter deals last year to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, according to Cushman & Wakefield data reported by Crain’s.

Roughly $2.55 billion worth of deals got done during the quarter, as compared to about $14 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to the data. The rush to close deals last quarter was driven by a desire to avoid tax increases that kicked in at the start of this year, Nat Rockett, a Cushman broker, told Crain’s.  [more]

From left: 245 Park Avenue, 444 Madison Avenue and 292 Madison Avenue

With so much of Lower Manhattan’s office space dismantled by Hurricane Sandy, businesses in need of temporary office space fast are shrugging custom built, for “prebuilt” spaces, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Like a furnished apartment, prebuilt offices come with Wifi, phones, printers, desks and even coffee all ready to go. A two-person prebuilt office rents for approximately $1,500 per month, according to the Journal. [more]

Picnic tables under the Manhattan Bridge

As commercial rents in technology firm heavy Midtown South rise, smaller tech firms and start-ups are turning to communal work spaces or, in some cases, are eschewing office space altogether. According to the Wall Street Journal, each Thursday in August tech workers from a diverse set of companies will meet at picnic tables under the Manhattan Bridge to program, design and enjoy a beer. This non-traditional office space and free WiFi are provided by the office-sharing company Loosecubes and the Dumbo Improvement District in order to give fledgling tech firms a rent-free space to spread their wings. [more]

From left: Robert Sammons, vice president of research at Cassidy Turley and the World Financial Center

Manhattan’s Class A office market could see its highest vacancy rate since December 1996, said Robert Sammons, vice president of research at commercial brokerage Cassidy Turley, in a column for the New York Observer.

The amount of vacant Class A office space is on track to increase to 33.62 million square feet, from the current 24.48 million square feet of vacancies, by 2013 — a 3.4-percentage-point spike that would bring the vacancy rate to 13.3 percent, the highest level in 17 years. [more]

Midtown Manhattan

New York real estate a bargain? Yes, says Forbes, which reports on the most expensive places in the world to rent an office.

Citing CBRE tallies, Midtown New York is the world’s 18th most expensive place to get office space. Hong Kong (Central) comes is number one, London’s West End is number two and Tokyo is number three. The Brazilian cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro also commanded pricier commercial rents than Midtown Manhattan. Forbes did not publish the cities’average rent prices. [more]

(source: Jones Lang LaSalle)

Buoyed by the city’s growing technology sector, Midtown South was the strong point in a Manhattan office market that stagnated in February, according to a report released today by Jones Lang LaSalle.

After a brief respite from tightening conditions last month, the vacancy rate in Midtown South fell to 6.6 percent from 6.9 percent, as Class B space was in particular demand, with just 6.4 percent of the 48.6 million square feet of inventory. [more]