Manhattan office leasing market on pace for record year

Manhattan’s office leasing market is on pace for its best year ever after February brought some 3 million square feet worth of deals, Crain’s reported. That’s far above the nine-year monthly average of 1.9 million square feet of office leases, according to Cushman & Wakefield, and marks only the sixth time since 2002 that leasing activity has been this high in the borough. The banner month also comes on the heels of a busy January, when 2.6 million square feet were snapped up in Manhattan office lease transactions. In fact, February was the sixth straight month during which leasing activity came in above the nine-year monthly average, and the surge could indicate a potential record year for the office market. The current record was set in 1998, when 33.1 million square feet in office leases were completed. [Crain’s]