Manhattan’s largest commercial leases are getting even larger, according to a report from Jones Lang LaSalle. The group said that the median commercial lease size on spaces greater than 10,000 square feet has reached its highest level since the beginning of 2008. This quarter, thus far, is seeing the median size of commercial space leased at 40,000 square feet, while the first quarter of 2008 was at a median of around 30,000 square feet. Despite this, recent reports have suggested that the commercial market may continue to suffer and Jones Lang LaSalle Director Peter Hennessy cautioned against reading too much into the report. “It’s too early to say things are improving,” Hennessy said. But deals over 100,000 square feet are getting done. As The Real Deal reported earlier this month, there were four leases over 100,000 square feet in Midtown last month, that together made up 57 percent of all lease deals over 100,000 square feet done this year, according to Pamela Murphy, senior vice president for research at CBRE’s tri-state region.

Midtown leasing velocity beat its five-year average for the first time
in 18 months while the availability rate of office space improved slightly for only the
second time since late 2007, according to a Manhattan monthly leasing
report from commercial services firm CB Richard Ellis released today. There was 1.58 million square feet leased in Midtown in July, up from
1 million in June, the report said, besting its 60-month average of
1.32 million square feet. The increase in leasing was attributed in part to the continued decline in rents. “The fact that pricing is getting to be more and more palatable just
means that it takes the edge off… the amount of time that it might
take for landlords and tenants to come to an agreement,” Pamela Murphy,
senior vice president for research at CBRE’s tri-state region, said
during a conference call covering the report this afternoon. [more]

Midtown office leasing, which has taken the brunt of the current
economic downturn, will see a flurry of expiring leases in 2010, which
will help reverse the dearth of activity, a new report from commercial
brokerage CB Richard Ellis says. Midtown will see a large
increase in leasing activity in 2010 when 1,380 leases
totaling 20.3 million square feet expire, the report shows. The
Midtown office market, with 34 million square feet available for
leasing, has seen an average price cut of 16 percent for 16 million
square feet of that space since September 2008, the firm said. TRD [more]