Chelsea, Meatpacking had lowest office availability in Q1

The Chelsea/Meatpacking area of Midtown South had the lowest availability of office leasing space of any of Manhattan’s 19 submarkets, according to Richard Persichetti, vice president of research at Cassidy Turley. Some 6.9 percent of space was vacant in the first quarter of 2013 — a drop from the nearly 9 percent availability in the previous quarter, Persichetti noted in a New York Observer column.

Google’s expansion in the neighborhood is the driving force behind the decline, he said. In the fourth quarter of last year, the Internet search giant took 95,000 square feet of space at the Chelsea Market. This year, Google took on another 85,000 square feet at Chelsea Market.

In the Chelsea/Meatpacking submarket overall, 10 additional leases were signed in the first quarter — all between 10,000 and 20,000 square feet.

And in Midtown South overall, the availability rate stayed at a constant 9 percent during the two quarters, which was the lowest of Manhattan’s three main markets. Pricing in Midtown South as a whole continued its increase in the first quarter, with asking rents up 3 percent to $57.60 per square foot. [NYO] —Zachary Kussin