From top: CBRE’s John Maher and Paul Myers (chart source: CB Richard Ellis). Click image to see a larger version of the chart.

The market for office space in several dozen of Midtown’s top
buildings tightened over the last quarter while it got softer in the rest
of the market, commercial brokers from CB Richard Ellis said.

Paul Myers, a CBRE executive vice president, said tenants should
keep in mind the difference between buildings in the market as they
hunt for space.

“If you are a tenant… when you are looking at a top floor in a top
building and you think it is a 12 percent [availability rate] and a
tenant’s market, you are actually not correct,” Myers said. [more]

Leasing activity in Manhattan this year will likely be the weakest in
decades, top leasing brokers at CB Richard Ellis said at a
quarterly-market briefing this morning. “Our expectation is this is going to be the worst year since we have
been keeping records on this” in the 1980s, said Paul Myers, CBRE
executive vice president, and tenant-side broker, at the breakfast,
held at the firm’s Midtown office. Peter Turchin, an executive vice
president with the firm, also spoke. There has only been 5.9 million square feet leased in Manhattan through
July 1, and he expects leasing for the year to be worse than the most
recent low of 14 million square feet in 1991. [more]