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Midtown at six straight months of positive net absorption: report
Bars are asking rent per foot; line is availability rate. (Source: Newmark Knight Frank)
In a positive sign for landlords, March was the sixth month in a row in which more space was removed from the Midtown office leasing market than was added to it, a new report for the month from commercial services firm Newmark Knight Frank shows (see the full report below).
But for Manhattan overall, the level of space added or removed from the market, known as net absorption, was a negative 140,000 square feet and average asking rents fell, the report says.
Midtown showed positive net absorption of nearly 360,000 square feet in March, and in the first quarter, more than a fifth of the 6.1 million square feet added to the market in 2009 had been absorbed.
But in Midtown South, there was nearly 150,000 square feet of negative absorption last month, and in Downtown more than 350,000 square feet of negative net absorption took place, the report says.
Average asking rents in Midtown fell by 37 cents in March to $42.93 per square foot, after two months of increases, and the availability rate for Manhattan was up .2 point to 13.7 percent, the report indicates. TRD