Low vacancy highlights office construction

Increasingly lower vacancy rates are underscoring the lack of new office construction in Manhattan, according to figures released this week by brokerage Trammell Crow. At a time when the commercial vacancy rate in the borough routinely scratches or dips below the 7 percent mark and the number of office-based workers keeps rising, only 8.5 million square feet of new office space is currently under construction, with completion dates as far out as 2009. This fresh space represents only a 1.6 percent increase in Manhattan’s office inventory, according to Trammell Crow. By Tom Acitelli