Long Island office leases rose 112 percent during first quarter, according to CBRE

Leasing activity in Long Island’s office market surged during the first three months of 2019, driving down availability during the first quarter of as absorption turned positive for the first time since the second quarter of 2018, according to data published by CBRE Group. Tenants leased 605,000 square feet across the island during the first quarter, more than doubling the activity of the same period in 2018. This uptick also outpaced the five-year quarterly average. Pushing this trend were two transactions by Newsday and AdvantageCare Physicians. The Newsday Media Group signed a 15-year lease in March on a 130,000-square-foot complex in Melville where it plans to move its headquarters. Long Island also posted 62,000 square feet of positive net absorption during the first quarter of this year, erasing the final quarter of 2018’s negative 136,000 square feet. Availability decreased by 70 basis points. All of this was driven by those same leases and a lack of big blocks coming to market, as noted by The Real Deal in a February market report. Despite such changes, the overall asking rent for office space on Long Island remained basically the same, hovering at $27.35 per square foot. CBRE noted that the latter increased a single cent from the fourth quarter of 2018. [CBRE]