Fitch’s renewal is further evidence of city’s stagnant office leasing market

In Manhattan’s stagnant office leasing market even a renewal and expansion comes with bad news. The New York Post reported that Fitch Ratings renewed at 33 Whitehall Street in Lower Manhattan and expanded its footprint by 41,000 square feet to a total of 180,500. But at the same time, it’s abandoning 100,000 square feet it previously used nearby at 1 State Street Plaza, marking a net loss for the Lower Manhattan market.

The deal is typical of financial services consolidation that has become rampant in the Manhattan office market. Until the sector begins showing an appetite for more office space, Jones Lang LaSalle Tri-State President Peter Riguardi told the Post “we’re not going to have a boom.”

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While the city’s office market is still among the best in the country and leasing did increase in the second quarter over an abysmal first quarter, the Post said tenant activity in new towers is most important to the city’s future. And the financial service firms haven’t shown any desire for brand new space in forthcoming towers like 1 and 4 World Trade Center, the International Gem Tower and Boston Properties’ 250 West 55th Street. And the booming tech sector can’t be counted upon as it shuns new Midtown development for flexible space in Midtown South. [Post]