Activity boom means rent uptick for SL Green

If some commercial real estate experts are feeling optimistic, then SL Green Realty might be downright giddy. The landlord said that it’s seeing an uptick in leasing activity — and it plans to take advantage of the newly favorable scenario by raising taking rents on its upscale properties by as much as 7 percent, according to Crain’s. Steven Durels, executive vice president with SL Green, said that the company’s premium properties are getting more attention for the first time in a long while. “We are getting a lot of offers on our better spaces,” Durels said. “That hasn’t happened in over a year.” While the taking rent uptick will affect just 30 percent of the landlord’s 25-million-square-foot, 30-building portfolio, the policy change will apply to some of the company’s most high-profile properties, including the top floors of 810 Seventh Avenue and the tower floors of 100 Park Avenue. SL Green says it has the clients to back up its changes — while the first half of 2009 had been dismal for the landlord, the last two quarters of the year resulted in a 56 percent surge in leasing activity over the beginning of the year.