Leases at 510 Madison may bode well for office market recovery

From left: Paul Amrich of CBRE, 510 Madison Avenue and JLL’s Cynthia WasserbergerA series of leases signed late last year at 510 Madison Avenue, for well over $100 a square foot, signifies a turnaround for the 350,000-square-foot building and may be a sign of recovery for Manhattan’s overall high-end office market, brokers told the New York Times. The office tower at 53rd Street, which was once owned by developer Harry Macklowe, was taken over by Boston Properties in September. “Boston Properties had the vision to buy the building at a time in the market five months ago when even then people were very cautious about $100 rents,” said Paul Amrich, an executive vice president at CB Richard Ellis, which is representing 510 Madison. “But they knew the trophy status of the building and the location of the building would prove that we would get to those rents again.” While there were a total of 91 office leases signed in dozens of Midtown buildings for $100 or more per square foot at the height of the office market in 2008, that number dropped to just 18 deals in 2009, according to data from Jones Lang LaSalle. The total for 2010 was about the same, with 19 deals signed in eight buildings, including three at 510 Madison. “If the numbers were 19 deals in 2010, I bet we see closer to 40 in 2011,” predicted Cynthia Wasserberger, a managing director at JLL. “The reason is 510 Madison is now open for business. It’s a 30-story building, and those are going to be some partial- and single- and double-floor tenants, so that could account for a sizable number of deals.” [NYT]