From left: Colleen Susini, director at Regus, 477 Madison Avenue and 77 Water Street (buildings credits: PropertyShark)

International office space giant Regus, known for offering flexible long- and short-term leasing solutions for individuals and businesses, is expanding its presence in Manhattan, with two new office space options next month, plus at least one next year.

The company will be opening a 40,000-square-foot space at the William Kaufman Organization’s 77 Water Street and a 13,000-square-foot space at J.A.B. Madison Associates’ 477 Madison Avenue in November, Colleen Susini, director for the New York area at Regus, said. The two openings are part of a larger initiative to expand the company’s presence in New York City, which will also include an office at 411 Lafayette Street at the beginning of 2012. Details of the Lafayette Street space were not yet available. [more]

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From the October issue: Three years ago, with the country in the midst of a financial crisis, major global banks looked to cut costs by subletting their unneeded office space to other companies. Just weeks after Lehman Brothers Holdings filed for bankruptcy, financial institutions like MetLife, Citigroup and Bank of America dumped more than 1 million square feet of this so-called sublease space on the market. As the downturn dragged into 2009, the total amount of sublease space peaked, with Manhattan financial services firms listing at least 4.4 million square feet by the middle of the year. Today, news of Wall Street’s financial losses has pushed banks to take out the knife once again, looking for ways to cut back on expenses. And some real estate insiders expect those boardroom decisions to lead to another increase in sublease space in the Manhattan market. [more]

From the November issue: The amount of free rent that landlords are offering to entice reluctant tenants to sign contracts has hit record levels in the current downturn, despite the fact that asking rents have started to stabilize in parts of the Manhattan leasing market. In the third quarter, two Midtown leases were signed with 17 and 18 months of free rent — double the average of eight and a half months, figures from the most recent report from commercial services firm CB Richard Ellis showed. Some industry professionals said even longer rent-free periods were being negotiated. “For some landlords it may be advantageous to give more free rent [but] with a higher rent [per square foot],” he said. The free rent was just one element of a soft Manhattan leasing market that saw a 1 percent decline in September asking rents. Those rents fell to $50.78 from $51.28 per square foot the month earlier, the CBRE data shows. Average asking rents are now down 29 percent from the peak of $71.92 per square foot in July 2008.

Some commercial tenants are trying to appear more conservative during
the recession by moving offices off of prime streets. One anonymous
broker said he has a “client who’s on Park Avenue and wants to get off
Park. They feel it has too much cachet and it sends the wrong signal to
their shareholders and to people in general.” Robert Goodman, a senior
managing director at FirstService Williams, said he has seen a number
of law firms come “to the realization that the Park Avenue addresses
aren’t as much of a recruiting tool as they were in the past.” [more]