Nowhere to go but up

Manhattan office leasing collapsed last month, but experts anticipate improvement post-Labor Day

From left: James Wacht of Lee & Associates and Bruce Mosler of Cushman & Wakefield
From left: James Wacht of Lee & Associates and Bruce Mosler of Cushman & Wakefield

From the September issue: Office leasing volume will almost certainly go up in September, brokers say, but that’s in part because of how far it dropped last month.

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Indeed, the level of office leasing nearly collapsed in August, as Manhattan tenants and landlords signed just 775,357 square feet of renewal and relocation leases — the lowest all year, preliminary data from commercial firm Cassidy Turley shows. That figure represents only about a quarter of the average monthly volume of 2.8 million square feet over the past five years. August’s tally was also less than half of the 1.8 million square feet leased in July. [more]