Ben Friedland, senior vice president at CBRE

From the June issue: As New York City real estate is to the country, the Plaza District seems to be to New York: The last to fall and the first to rise. In this month’s Q & A, The Real Deal talked to commercial brokers, analysts and building managers about the office district — one of the toniest commercial submarkets in Manhattan.

They said that while rents there declined by over 40 percent during the recession, they have shot up by as much as 32 percent in the last year, and the district is outperforming other high-profile commercial submarkets like Times Square in its recovery.

While rents are still far off from their peak and landlords are still offering concessions, the market has attracted headlines lately for how quickly it appears to be tightening — particularly on the high end. For more on which buildings are performing best, what kinds of concessions are being offered and where the bargains are, we turn to our panel of experts. Click here or on Ben Friedland’s image to see what he and other commercial real estate insiders had to say about the Plaza District.

Buildings where deals have been done for over $100 this year. From left: 9 West 57th Street, 152 West 57th Street and 1095 Avenue of the Americas (Source: PropertyShark)

Although the top taking rent so far this year is an eye-popping $185
per square foot at Sheldon Solow’s 9 West 57th Street, it is just one
of only a handful of leases signed for $100 or more per square foot
this year in a challenging leasing environment, industry experts said. New York City landlords signed just 12 leases with taking rents of over
$100 per square foot through July 31, down from 66 at the same time
last year, figures from commercial services firm Cushman &
Wakefield show, an 80 percent drop. “From 66 to 12 is a significant drop off, considering quite a few of
those were renewals of captive tenants,” and most were not for large
deals, said Jonathan Mazur, assistant director of research services for
Cushman & Wakefield. He would not comment on particular deals. Comments

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