Year ends with more office leasing activity

From the January issue: Whether encouraged by declining asking rents or spurred by pent-up
demand, brokers said office tenants finished out the extremely
difficult year of 2009 with a flurry of activity.
Yet few believed the market had found a solid footing, as landlords
continued to cut asking rents to compete amid a landscape of high
unemployment and an uncertain recovery.
“The big question that tenants have today is: ‘How bullish do I
feel about the future?'” said tenant broker Harry Krausman, managing
director at Colliers ABR. “If a tenant feels confident that their
business is going to be better five years from now than it is today,
then they are more likely to want to lock into the cheap rates today.”
James Delmonte, a vice president and director of research at Jones
Lang LaSalle, said in a report last month that stronger activity in
Midtown did not signal that a recovery was at hand.