Rupert Murdoch and 1211 Sixth Ave.

From the April issue: The 44-story tower at 1211 Sixth Avenue, home to Rupert Murdoch’s global media company News Corporation, is getting a major new tenant. Axis Re, a division of Axis Capital, the large Bermuda-based reinsurance company, signed a lease to move to 121,019 square feet on floors 24 through 26, data from CoStar Group shows. The asking rent for the three floors at the 1.8 million-square-foot tower, which is located between 47th and 48th streets, was $65 per square foot, leasing data website MrOfficeSpace.com shows. That price was a bit above the overall asking rent in Midtown, which in February was $57.97 per square foot, CBRE figures show. Click here to see the commercial market report in the April issue for more on the latest office trends.

Overall vacancy rates in Manhattan declined in November to 12.3 percent, from 12.4 percent in October, according to a monthly market report released today by Cassidy Turley. The decrease was thanks largely in part to a number of smaller transactions in the Midtown South market, which saw strength across most of its submarkets, with vacancy rates falling to 12.2 percent from 12.8 percent. The reports also shows that the average asking rent in Manhattan saw a small boost last month, rising to $47.57 per square foot, from $47.23 in October. TRD [more]

Overall asking rent for Manhattan office space climbed slightly to $47.73 per square foot in August, from $47.57 per square foot in July, according to CB Richard Ellis’ latest market report. The vacancy rate in Manhattan also showed modest improvement, dropping gradually month-over-month to 13.4 percent, from 13.7 percent. Compared to August 2009, vacancy was down .5 percent. Of the borough’s prime office neighborhoods, the Downtown market struggled the most, showing its slowest leasing momentum since September 2009, as the vacancy rate remained steady at 14.3 percent. Midtown, however, showed promise: 10.55 million square feet has been leased so far this year, up 56 percent from the same time period last year. TRD

[more]

The Manhattan office market is much healthier than it was a year ago, according to a CB Richard Ellis market report released today. The report, which measures 2010 market activity up until May 1, showed that 6.75 million square feet of office space has been leased so far this year, compared to the same time period in 2009 when 3.45 million square feet had been leased. [more]

Source: Jones Lang LaSalle

The overall office leasing market remained flat in Manhattan last month with Class A properties showing the most improvement and Class B properties continuing to lag, according to a new report covering April from commercial firm Jones Lang LaSalle (click here to see full report).

Asking rents in Class A properties rose in six of eight submarkets in Midtown and Downtown while Class B rates dropped in five of those eight areas, the report shows.

The uptick in asking rents in select submarkets is a sign of market stabilization, company vice president of research James Delmonte said, but not of a sustained period of rent increases. [more]

Manhattan office asking rents fell by their largest amount in four months in March even as leasing volume increased, according to data from commercial services firm CB Richard Ellis.

Average asking rents fell by 51 cents per foot in March to $48.27 per square foot, the steepest decline since rents fell by 73 cents in November 2009 to $49.17 per foot, CBRE data shows.

Over the previous three months, the average asking rent in the market fell by an average of only 14 cents per foot. The flattening in the decline in rents was seen as an indicator of stability in pricing.

Matthew Van Buren, executive vice president at CBRE, said the fluctuations in asking rent may just be individual large deals swaying the market. [more]

The Manhattan office market is on its way up, according to a recent investment report from CB Richard Ellis, which projects across-the-board improvements in office investment sales through the end of the year. The report, which cites early-2010 data, says there are market indicators to suggest a rebound. Despite the lengths the market may have to go to a rebound — the report shows that sales volume dropped 91 percent between 2008 and 2009 — CBRE says that investor attitude is changing for the better. “Investors believe that rents are stabilizing,” the report says, noting that February’s average asking rent of $48.78 per square foot is widely thought of as the market bottom, from July 2008′s peak of $71.92 per square foot. In the broader metro area, CBRE says that prices will continue to climb, spurring more investment sales. “By year-end 2010, CBRE econometric advisors forecasts that average New York City metro office rents will increase by 2.2 percent compared to year-end 2009,” the report says. TRD

CB Richard Ellis’ most recent monthly Manhattan Marketviews report showed disparate office leasing activity in three of the borough’s main office corridors: Midtown, Midtown South and Downtown. Midtown South had “robust leasing activity in February,” according to the report, with 410,000 square feet leased, marking 46 percent more leased space than the five-year monthly average recorded by CBRE. And while the average rent per square foot in the area stayed relatively flat, climbing just 5 cents month-over-month, the overage leasing volume had a positive effect on the area’s office market. Downtown, however, was not so encouraging. The neighborhood saw just 210,000 square feet of leased space, down 46 percent from the five-year monthly average of 390,000 square feet. Midtown, meanwhile, “had a stable month in February,” the report says, falling short of the monthly average by about 29 percent but showing strong gains over the same time period a year earlier. TRD

The volume of new office leasing in Manhattan slipped last month from the 12-month high seen in December but was twice what was recorded in the same period a year ago, a new report released yesterday by commercial firm CB Richard Ellis shows (see full report after the jump).

For Manhattan overall, the 1.94 million square feet leased in January was 12 percent lower than in December, but was more than twice the level recorded in January 2009, when just 920,000 square feet was leased, the report says.

The volume of leasing has been cited as an important indicator of stability in the marketplace, because, brokers say, tenants are more comfortable taking space at current pricing levels.

The leasing volume dropped in all three Manhattan markets in January, but fell the most in Midtown. Meanwhile, in Midtown South there were positive signs for landlords as rental rates rose significantly and vacancy rates fell last month. [more]

From the February issue: The high volume of leasing in recent months, fueled in part by tenants signing early renewals at sharply reduced prices, could come back to bite the market next year, some industry experts said. Tenants with two and three years remaining on their leases — and sometimes even four years — are signing renewals early, said Bruce Mosler, CEO and co-chairman of commercial services firm Cushman & Wakefield. “We are seeing, I think, a push to market … to take advantage of the capitulations in rents,” he said. “Which I think is creating demand in this market, and I think it will [reduce] demand in ’11 … unless we see some job growth again.” However, some brokers did not expect the same elevated levels this year. “I don’t think January will continue at the same level,” Howard Rosen, regional managing director at commercial firm Grubb & Ellis New York, said in an interview. “As far as I am concerned, the jury is out, and I don’t see job creation in Manhattan.” [more]