Midtown office values poised to eclipse 2007 peak within a year

Property values for Midtown Manhattan office buildings are nearing their 2007 peak and are poised to eclipse it within the next 12 months, Bloomberg News reported. The valuation comes via real estate research firm Green Street Advisors, which said in a new report that office properties in Midtown have recovered 88 percent of the value lost since 2008 and are now within 15 percent of their peak, thanks to demand from investors who expect rents to rise. Lower Manhattan hasn’t fared as well, recovering only 41 percent of the value lost since the bottom of the market there in 2009. Overall, Manhattan offices have bounced back by around 78 percent, Green Street said, and are now even with their levels from mid-to-late-2006. Green Street calculated its findings using only the buildings owned by REITs and other publicly-traded companies, which represent 15 percent of the Manhattan market, and unlike several of its peers, included transactions in negotiation to arrive at its numbers. Michael Knott, an analyst at Green Street, said the firm’s numbers are representative of “investment-quality product” in the market. [Bloomberg]